A prolific artist, he delivers State of our life a unique performance on the stage of the Théâtre du Rond-Point theater in Paris. An intimate alphabet book opportunity.
Lola Lafon is a dancing, singing and writing slasher. The author has seven novels, many awards and international recognition. Here he is a performer on the stage of the Théâtre du Rond-Point, Paris, c State of our lifea glorification of deviance, of sharing, of fragility.
Madame Figaro. – Each of your novels has given rise to a musical reading. You reverse the motion. State of our life first of all, it’s a scene. How did you do it? ?
Lola Lafon. – These are texts, short forms that I wrote for the stage. Or that I chose from my press columns. They offer a subjective definition of the word. I realized in retrospect that this is something that runs through all my novels. Redefine the word. I also really like synonyms, antonyms…
Is this alone? ?
No, Olivier Lambert, who composed the music for the various musical readings I’ve done, is on stage in front of me. More than a musician, he throws words at me.
You write in several notebooks at the same time. Are these texts coming from your diary? ?
A diary remains a diary. That said, I can take scraps and recycle them. I have several files on my computer: “novel”, “my diary”, then a diary to write, a kind of monologue. It’s all very porous. What do we keep to ourselves or feel we can tell others?
We are not always capable of being powerful. Worse, we don’t always feel like it
Lola Lafon
You write by speaking out loud…
I am obsessed with rhythm, alliteration of consonants, refrains. I like to plant sentences in my texts that echo each other while being very far apart.
What about the word “brittle”? ?
My previous novel, turn around, was a kind of glorification of power. And even before, in the feminist movement, I was marked by the celebration of women’s power. It is important to encourage it, but it is paradoxical. There is something overwhelming about this directive. We are not always capable of being powerful. Worse, we don’t always feel like it. I wonder where this leaves what’s wrong, lame.
and “fear” ?
I went to meet the Year 4 studentse, do a writing workshop in Normandy. I asked them for a Perec-style list of their fears. Unexpected things happened. “I am afraid of dying badly. You imagine such a dual fear, not of dying, but of dying badly. And then, the classics like: “I’m afraid of what’s under my bed. Or related to current events. “I am afraid of Saturday’s demonstration. “I was interested in how we vote. Now we vote out of fear, not support.
another word “Golden” featured in your latest book When you listen to this song The story of your night at the Anne Frank Museum, in the app…
It is a Romanian word and is untranslatable. A mixture of regret, lack and the memory of happiness. is the closest word “Saudade” Portuguese language.
You speak many languages and have had an incredible life Born in France, childhood in Romania… And in New York to study dance.
I speak Romanian, English, French fluently. Learning several languages at the same time makes you attentive to their music. And growing up in a country with a different political system gives a kind of distance from what we consider fair or unfair.
And the word “write”. ?
It’s a Rubik’s Cube. When I’m not writing, I’m obsessed with that idea. When I write, I think I don’t write enough. Funny thing. In dramatic moments like today, we are tempted to tell ourselves that words are useless. They can be an injury. I think that not only fiction is necessary, but we are constantly immersed in it. My father, an eighteenth-century scholar and expert on Diderot, told me: “Writing is an admission of impotence. We write because we cannot do otherwise. »
need not be” good for that “, as Beckett says… And the word “Jew”. ?
I avoided it for a long time, I didn’t know what to do with it… And then, you can’t keep inventing another identity. I felt an obligation of loyalty to the people who came before me. There were heroes in my family. I’m not replacing them, but at least I have to say who I am.
And “consent” ?
This word did not exist ten years ago. One of the only political joys in my lifetime is to see a successful feminist movement.
The MeToo revolution…
It is global. This does not concern only one class, one country. It will not end like this. There is joy in that too. A force. I am very moved, moved, thinking about the silence in which we lived. When I think back to myself at the age of 24, how horrible it was to be a rape victim. The topic did not exist. What is not said, is not said, does not exist. There was no debate, we self-destructed. You know, in the late 1980s there was the Act Up movement and its famous cover; “Silence is death. I think it’s the same with sexual abuse. Today, I admire the courage of women speaking up. Of course, action is needed. Justice follows!
State of our life, by Lola Lafon, from November 22 to December 9 at the Theater du Rond-Point in Paris. theatredurondpoint.fr:
Source: Le Figaro
