JoeyStarr, director of a single feminist scene, we didn’t expect it… and neither did he. And yet, his meeting with Clarisse Fontaine was obvious. Just like the discovery of his piece, This little music that nobody hears, which the young woman wrote and which she performs today under the leadership of the actor who became a director for the occasion “Someone introduced me to Clarisse. She asked me to read her show. I told him “But I’m not a director” and reading, I found things that are a bit part of my story too, ”explains JoeyStarr to Cover Media.
This little music that nobody hears, whose soundtrack was entrusted to Cut Killer, questions misogyny, the place of women in society and the violence they face, whether psychological or physical. JoeyStarr was convicted of assaulting an ex-partner in 2009 and, according to him, working on this subject is not “a provocation”. “In my DNA, what interests me is the legacy. So I went beyond that and yeah, I talked to Clarisse about it. I said to him “Do you know that we are going to be dismantled?”, advances the actor before continuing: I said to him: “what interests me, it is to show that we are not only what for what we have always been taken, that is to say, to be in provocation”. Here we are really in the human. And, I find my place there. »
A “well surrounded fool”
Clarisse Fontaine believes that having the singer of NTM as director “strengthens the purpose” of her play. “You could say that this is perhaps what makes our project progressive somewhere, this association of the two of us”, adds the one who is a hit in the series Replacing.
The play was performed at the Saint-Malo theater, directed by Laurent Ziveri, also Clarisse Fontaine’s coach, at the end of September in front of a very eclectic audience, made up in particular of young people convicted of “violence against a spouse”. “If they weren’t completely open, they totally understood the point. We showed them things visually and it became more perceptible to them. It was also for them the beginning of another work with therapists”, explains the creator of this single-in-stage. If the reactions were “extremely positive” on the whole, “some spectators reacted more or less well”, specifies however the actress: “It is to be expected and at the same time we know why we do it. We also come to disrupt. It’s only a few men, it’s not much, but they also exist. »
If he “still wonders how one becomes a director”, JoeyStarr prefers to consider himself as “a well surrounded imbecile”. “By the director of Saint-Malo, in particular, abounds the actor. Then, I go out, I will see. And I realize my shortcomings above all. Just before going to Saint-Malo for the premiere, I was at the Opéra Garnier and I was slapped in the face. I am like a child. »
Verdict on December 5
“I really discovered theater four or five years ago. I’ve never taken an acting class or anything, so when I’m there directing Clarisse, I just have this little moment where I’m like “wow”. I’m learning in every way… the scenography, everything”, continues the one who confides not knowing if he will “repeat the exercise” but having “loved doing this one”.
And concerning the reaction of his entourage on his involvement in a show dealing with violence against women? “For now, they make up their minds based on what we sell them. Afterwards, I have always been taken for a gentle madman, even when I go into the wall, so here it is, ”replies JoeyStarr.
To give life to This little music that nobody hears, which will also be played at the Théâtre du balcon in March then during the Avignon festival in July, it took more than two years, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And the verdict should not be long in coming for the… “repentant”: the play will be performed this December 5 at the Palais des Glaces, in Paris.