Theatre: The aspirations of youth On an air of yéyé

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Published on 04/10/2024

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The yéyé hasn’t finished making people dance. Fabienne Barras’ company, Les Citrons Sonnés, is having a hard time: it will finally be able to abandon itself to the rhythm of the twist next Wednesday, the premiere of its new musical show, On a yéyé tune. The creation at Nuithonie includes around ten performances in total.

To explain Fabienne Barras’s crush on this popular music, founding in several respects, we must go back to her previous shows: it was she who put on, among others, Zazous Zaz And Vian in the ears!, two proposals which delved into the musical atmosphere mixed with swing and jazz of the 1940s and 1950s. It was also she who set up a country theater stage in Cutterwil, Chez Séraphin – and Anne-Claude –, in a barn next to her parents’ house.

The popular ambition of the theater remains at the heart of its approach, even if of course the technical means of an institutional stage like Nuithonie allow it to build a set, to imagine a lighting creation, to invite four musicians live on scene. “I have a whole career as an amateur singer in choirs,” recalls Fabienne Barras, who is a chorister in the Utopie vocal ensemble.

“Music and singing allow us to enhance moments that are not palpable with words”
Fabienne Barras

“Music and singing allow us to enhance moments that are not palpable with words. It’s a way of poeticizing,” assumes the actress who, in reality, is not alone at the helm of this new creation. On a yéyé tune is the fruit of collective work: Fabienne Barras, Stella Giuliani and Jonas Marmy all three play, sing and dance. They are surrounded, live on set, by Benoît Gisler on guitar, Gael Kyriakidis on bass and Manuel Pasquinelli on drums. Jonas Marmy will also be familiar with the keyboards.

Effervescence

If we had to give a label to this musical show, it would be partly a musical comedy: the trio researched, delved into articles, watched TV shows, took an interest in the yéyé archives to imagine a scenario. “We asked ourselves what was happening in France at that time? What did this music provoke? explains Jonas Marmy. In other words: whose mouthpiece was she? The team put themselves in the shoes of the teenagers of the 1960s, who were the first to appropriate this musical genre. She wanted to enter their room, into their privacy, “rather than making the stars hear,” adds Stella Giuliani.

One of the main sources is a collection of testimonies from the time which gave young people a voice. In tune with Hi buddies!, a radio show coupled with a magazine, the teenagers also expressed themselves on politics or their concerns. “It was the desire to give substance to the subject, not just to sing,” insists Stella Giuliani. “But for us it is not a question of analyzing this period, but of bringing a personal, intimate look at the music: how did the yéyé vibrate? We want to bathe the public in the effervescence and excitement of the time, to bring the desire for joy and freedom that the yéyé inspired.”

“We want to bring the desire for joy and freedom that the yéyé blew”
Stella Giuliani

Fabienne Barras adds: “The revolution of May 68 has not yet taken place, we are at the beginnings.” This danceable music, which comes straight from rock’n’roll and twist, is “sensory music, which makes you want to feel free. It allows you to assert yourself through your body, to dare to live your youth,” analyzes the actress. The 1960s were also a “pivotal” period during which adolescence gained social status, including a form of economic and political power. “In 1963, the show Hi buddies! produces a concert at the Place de la Nation, in Paris, it’s overflowing,” she recalls. The date marks the birth of the word “yéyé” (which comes from the English Yeah yeah), from the pen of sociologist Edgar Morin…

A fashion is required. And it’s not just musical. The girls copy Sheila’s skirt or France Gall’s makeup, while the latter’s records are torn off, smiles the trio: “They were the influencers of the time.” For Stella Giuliani, the success of yéyé is also due to its way of democratizing dance. The twist is not as sophisticated and codified as ballroom dances: it is practiced “familiarly”, alone, in pairs or in groups. It is “affordable” and can serve as an “outlet”: “Everyone has their place.”

Need for lightness

So much for the story. As for the musical choices, the group will of course make insistent nods to hits, to these songs which have remained alive on our nostalgic airwaves: it cites Johnny, Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy, Claude François, Jacques Dutronc, Eddy Mitchell , Dick Rivers, Richard Anthony, without forgetting the Fribourgeoise Arlette Zola, successfully staged in Paris. But not only that: to stick to the point, he took paths which are not necessarily very frequented, the repertoire being plethoric, underlines Fabienne Barras. “We made a selection of a selection of a selection,” she laughs. These are all songs that touch us.”

Touching is the key word: enough to remain faithful to his concern for the public, we come back to it: “I have done a lot of theater in schools. I like the spontaneous side, the vibrant and meaningful sharing of live. I myself come from a working-class background. I don’t want to do elitist theater, theater must speak to everyone, we must be able to recognize ourselves in it,” says the actress.

She and her accomplices therefore do not intend to imitate the stars, but to remember this age when they too dreamed of putting themselves in the spotlight, for the duration of a song. Like everyone else, they were teenagers, put up posters of stars in their room, watched them on TV, listened to records on repeat, danced and sang secretly in their room… “We don’t a reconstruction, insists Stella Giuliani. We want to give a feeling of that period.” Especially since “we all need lightness, these moments of escape, perhaps even more today”, according to Jonas Marmy.

>Wed 7 p.m. Villars-sur-Glâne Night time. On display until April 28.