In front of a heavy purple velvet curtain falling from the sky, a silhouette of a woman wearing sunglasses and wearing one of those large glamorous straw hats spins around to get tangled in a sheet. She is beautiful and ridiculous. Star and jug. “Do we understand correctly that she is tied up? asks Camille Cottin to her director, Jonathan Capdevielle. I would like us to see a picture of the subpoena. » But after several minutes of fighting with her sheet, the actress gave up. The tandem decides that it is too late to keep the idea for this evening, but, we promise, we will fix everything in view of the performances at the Bouffes du Nord in Paris, in three weeks, from January 7.
This Wednesday, December 18, on the stage of the Théâtre d'Arles, Camille Cottin rehearses the show The Meeting, created in September in Aix-en-Provence. Adapted from the novel Jewish Cock, literally “Jewish cock”, by the German novelist Katharina Volckmer, the play is the monologue of a woman who comes to her gynecologist to have a circumcised penis transplanted. A monster text, fiercely feminist, provocative and funny. A “caress and a slap”, in the words of Jonathan Capdevielle, where it is a question of German guilt linked to the Shoah, God, the love of theater, gender transition and, of course, men. And more exactly their cock, since that's what the author calls their penis.
When she read the first page of the novel, almost four years ago, Camille Cottin stopped and wondered aloud: “But what is this thing? » She put the book down, as if she needed to take a deep breath, before continuing reading. When she asked literary agents to find ideas for a film script with beautiful female roles to play, this was the first text that was sent to her. The actress doesn't know what to do with this bombshell. She sends a copy to her mother, Edith, a great reader, whose opinion she likes to seek, and another to her best friend, Benjamin Gauthier, actor and director. Their return is enthusiastic. “It is an essential text”, assures the latter, who immediately pushes her to adapt it for the theater.
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