La Croix L’Hebdo : How are you ?
Nathalie Leone : It’s okay… But being intermittent in the show means being stressed all the time. We can’t stop looking for work. And when we have some, very often we have too many, so we’re stressed too! Financially, it’s difficult. At the moment, we are feeling the budgetary restrictions in the world of culture. Add to this the rise of the extreme right… And the extreme right means a drop in the cultural budget… Fortunately, the tale manages to slip through the mesh because it hides its light a little, it’s a art that adapts. Voltaire, for example, told philosophical tales in his time.
You have just created La vagabonde, a place dedicated to storytelling in Paris (1), so it remains very contemporary…
NL: Yes, because there is something extremely powerful in tales. They are “essential oils” of the human soul, stories polished from generation to generation, which have both remained intact and taken the form of their times. If they have reached us, it is because they have something to tell us. It’s hypnotic, the story.
When we tell you: “A long time ago, when the country was so vast that it stretched from India to Abyssinia, there was a king…” We only want to know what happens next! With stories, we become a child again, even the super CEO. This place, La Vagabonde, is designed as a neighborhood stage, with shows, workshops, meetings, bringing together very diverse audiences.
Why does the story seem so crucial to you today?
NL: It allows us to keep our imaginative capacity alert and lively. Which gives us our freedom to be. If we only listen to the doxa, we can turn off… But when we have a bouncing imagination, it’s oxygen, a current of air in the mind. This works all the better because the story does not call upon concepts but images. One day, a child told me something very true: “You dreamed in my head! » That’s exactly it! Tales reveal our common depth. They hold up a mirror of ourselves to us.
That’s to say ?
NL: They are a reflection, a mirror of what is universal in human beings. And it is an implacable mirror. It sends us back to our baseness, our jealousies, our desire to murder, our fears, but in the story we come out of it, because we get to the end of the story. The problem today is that people often don’t hear the symbolism and react at face value.
Did a scene stand out to you recently?
NL: Yes, after a performance around The sugar and honey dolla lady, a librarian, came to see me. In this tale, a couple falls apart and the husband kills his wife. The lady told me: “So, you are for femicide! » I was stunned. The language of the story is that of the symbol, of the dream. We are not in the news. And never in the first degree.
On the other hand, the tale does not elude anything that passes through beings, fantasies, repressed desires, the darkest impulses. This is why it is essential: it puts things on the table. Take Donkey skin… we understand that raped women or children drag their donkey skins through life. Until the moment when they manage to find their habit of light. This story is precious when you have been a victim. Same, we would like to throw away Blue Beard nettles because this tale is very hard… As if predators did not exist. Since they exist, let’s talk about them!
Christmas is coming, which stories will you choose?
NL: I don’t really like Santa Claus, who comes out of a Coca-Cola ad… But in winter, there are tales of the cold, of the light, which disappears and reappears. The elders, no doubt, were afraid that she wouldn’t come back… It’s a moment when we get closer to our loved ones, where we think of others, it’s a bit magical.
What was your last anger?
NL: It comes from a long way away, from 2016. I went for a walk with my son in the forest of Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, in the Paris region, we really liked going there. And there, what do I see: a forest on the ground! All the trees were lying down, ancient beeches, over several hectares. There was a sign explaining that the forest had been cut down to regenerate it. I felt enormous, gut-wrenching anger. Because for me, old trees are venerable. Since then, I have been active in two associations, the National Tree Surveillance Group (GNSA) and the Tree and Wildlife Protection (PAF). So that we no longer treat trees so lightly.