From culture… to general culture. Director, actress, author, Royan resident Camille Geoffroy thanks the “culture and heritage” department of the City of Royan in more than one way for commissioning her company, La Vie est Ailleurs, a…
From culture… to general culture. Director, actress, author, Royan resident Camille Geoffroy thanks the “culture and heritage” department of the City of Royan in more than one way for commissioning her company, La Vie est Ailleurs, a reading of texts by Emile Zola. Through his research, the artist discovered a little-known part of the writer’s life, celebrated locally in 2023 at the Royan Museum, through an exhibition dedicated to Zola’s passion for photography. “I learned that in addition to his partner and wife Alexandrine Meley, Émile Zola had a mistress, Jeanne Rozerot, with whom he had two children. »
A dialogue
Émile Zola was 49 years old when he met young Jeanne, 22 years old, hired as a linen worker… by his own wife Alexandrine. The latter, however, only learned of the existence of their affair – and of her husband’s double paternity – after four years. Camille Geoffroy’s inspiration therefore shifted from reading the texts offered to her by the city’s cultural service to diving into the intimacy of Zola. “In the form of a real dialogue between these two women, who also exchanged more than 90 letters after the death of Zola,” supports the Royan artist.
In the footsteps of Émile Zola in Royan
Since March 21 and until June 30, 2023, the exhibition “Zola and photography” is open at the Royan museum. She invites the curious to dive into the world of the naturalist writer by slipping into his lens while a work relates the writer’s vacation on the Royan coast.
“Their relationship went through all the phases, duality, confrontation, complicity… This story is complex, there is no judgment to be had. It was just as much for Émile Zola himself, who paradoxically, in his work, was in love with truth. » Camille Geoffroy will play for the first time in public this Friday March 29 (1) Jeanne Rozerot, her accomplice Catherine Rouzeau playing opposite her in the role of Alexandrine Meley. “I have kept some of the texts that were suggested to me to read, but these texts, obviously, will be integrated into the story, they will serve the purpose. » The story of a double life which will end up becoming one life. Romantic, obviously.
(1) “At the heart of Zola”, at the Royan municipal media library, 1 bis, rue de Foncillon, at 6:30 p.m. Friday March 29. Free, upon reservation at 05 46 39 32 10.
