Nice-Premium: “Words of Stars” in pages, “Words of Stars” in images and today “Words of Stars” on stage.
Isabelle Bondiau-Moinet: Yes, there are two of us on stage. We portray people who speak or recount stories in turns. The drama involves war, camps, liberation. From start to finish, we don’t play the same character. We portray many characters. We are like souls, like ghosts bearing witness; that’s what makes it a theater play. There is scenography, a soundtrack with original music and period music, texts, video projections, and everything is staged so that the audience can travel through the different worlds we embody.
N-P: How did you come up with the idea to adapt “Words of Stars” into a play?
Sylvie Sergio: The company has been around for six years. We’ve already put on four shows for adults and four for children. We were looking for our new creation. This book had been in our drawers for two years. When we read it, we felt we needed to do something with it, but we weren’t sure how to approach it. Isabelle decided to take care of it. She chose the testimonies and did the editing.
Isabelle Bondiau-Moinet: Reading this collection really resonated with a significant moment in our lives. I had my third daughter, and Sylvie had her second son. Our maternal instinct was more than just challenged by reading these testimonies. We received such an emotional jolt.
These children were separated. It’s painful. But when you also read that these children find their parents, it triggers the same emotional jolt. We are actresses of emotion. We love beautiful texts but avoid falling into sentimentality because I didn’t want a melodramatic show.
We wanted to convey this emotion. We couldn’t keep it all to ourselves; we had to share a bit with others (Smiles). It’s also a way to check if it’s just us who are sensitive or if it still means something. Is our sensitivity heightened because we are actresses and mothers? Can people be touched in turn? They are. This is the greatest response for us when people of all ages and religions are moved by our words, and then we thought, “There is still a possibility to be moved by things despite all we see. Our sensitivity is not diminished.” I wanted there to be no pity, but rather an awareness and a strong emotional charge.
N-P: This isn’t the first time you’ve performed together.
Sylvie Sergio: Indeed, we really enjoyed working together on “Actresses,” our previous creation, where there were four of us on stage. We wanted to do something just the two of us.
N-P: “Words of Stars” is also a duty to remember.
Sylvie Sergio: Yes, exactly that. I know a hidden child, a lady now, since I was very young. I discovered her story not long ago. Her testimony is written in the collection “Words of Stars.” These people felt they weren’t allowed to speak for 40 or 60 years. They were silent because their grief, pain, and suffering were not recognized because they didn’t experience the concentration camps.
Isabelle Bondiau-Moinet: They escaped, and they wondered why, “Why did I stay alive?”
Sylvie Sergio: In this collection, they say they were not given a voice, and our job as actresses is to give them that voice. We must pay tribute to them and say, “Yes, we recognize your suffering, your pain…” It’s also a tribute to these Righteous Among the Nations.
N-P: Was it difficult for you to interpret these roles?
Sylvie Sergio: We thought we’d never make it. It was really difficult.
Isabelle Bondiau-Moinet: I was able to take refuge behind technical work. Since I did the direction, I was able to step back a bit. For Sophie, it was more challenging because she didn’t have that backbone.
Sylvie Sergio: We tell stories that are so terrible, some are very beautiful, and others painful, and the challenge of the show is to quickly move from one state to another. We tell a story and “hop” the lights change, and we move to another story. It goes very fast. We portray about twenty characters each in 1 hour. One moment, we are very sad, another very happy. It’s a big job but as Isabelle says, it’s an extraordinary opportunity as an actress to experience this. It’s extremely rare to have such a wide range of emotions.
N-P: Finally, how would you describe “Words of Stars”?
Isabelle Bondiau-Moinet: It’s a hymn to love that has been betrayed, a hymn to humanity in all its atrocity and beauty, a hymn to atrocity and hope. More figuratively, I think it’s a good tester of the vital organ in our chest. If it doesn’t go “Boom boom,” it’s no longer working (Smiles).
Sylvie Sergio: Yes, it’s a hymn to childhood, to hope, to courage. We are both amazed at the courage of these people. Moussa Abadie, who created the Marcel network in Nice took the risk of hiding 527 children, which is a huge job: he had to find them a family, food, clothing, shoes…
I admire the courage of these people who didn’t ask questions. “This child is in danger, I’ll take him in.” People leaving this show don’t leave with a tear in their eye but rather with the desire to speak. It might be a big image, but it’s a bit like when you leave church after mass, you want to hug everyone. You are filled with love and humanity. It’s a beautiful gift.
At the Théâtre de la Semeuse
2 montée Auguste Kerl Vieux Nice
06300 Nice
Tel: 04 93 92 85 08
Performances on Friday and Saturday, February 10, at 8:30 PM,
and Sunday, February 11, 2007, at 3:00 PM
Website: www.compagnie-alcantara.com
