Caen actress, Émilie Horcholle is ready to heckle the public in the street
By Christophe Jaquet
Published on
Before descending again to Aurillac (Cantal), for the international street theater festival, Émilie Horcholle confides after a good hour of interview: “I no longer want to be what I am not. » From Wednesday 17 to Saturday 20 August 2022, the actress of Caen (Calvados) will play its new spectacle Truthful Veronique in the theater capital of Auvergne.
For her, whom we have known so extravagant for more than twenty years on the boards of Normandy, this is her first real solo. Where she reveals herself, asserts herself even more, not only with gestures, attitudes, a game of ping-pong from the public to her, but with text. For the first time perhaps, Émilie Horcholle no longer disguises herself as much despite the burlesque costumes and poses. “I needed to write, that’s why it took so long,” she breathes.
“Time to know what I was going to talk about”
At the end of the musical and surrealist show Fleur, and a hundred performances, Fred Tousch, her accomplice and elder in the profession pushed her towards the solo.
He said to me: now you are able to do this on your own, you can take people, the public, you, on your own.
So Émilie dives in and decides “before confinement”. Truthful Veronique – title quickly found with Fred Tousch, because “it sounds good” – was even scheduled “at the start in the spring of 2020”. The Covid-19 has been there, with its procession of festivals and canceled indoor seasons. During the health crisis, she “did much more introspection”: “It took me a long time to know what I was going to talk about, I think I wrote eight versions of the show so much I changed my mind. »
In 2021, the public is back. But necessarily masked. “Unable to play Truthful Veronique with spectators whom I do not see. » New report. This year is the good one. The show premiered in May, indoors, at the brand new Théâtre des Cordes of the Comédie de Caen. Then he took to the streets in Hérouville, Mondeville, Granville (Manche) during the Sorties de bain festival, Caen for Éclats de rue and Ouistreham on August 10. Each time, even if it’s more written than before, that there is “a frame to unfold”, that the “speech [la] endangers”, Émilie Horcholle adapts “to the people opposite”.
Adapt to the public
It’s his trademark. Which comes to him from street theatre, where “we have this hook, it’s direct address”. But with Truthful Veronique, with this character of a woman who advances, even “stripping” to “put an end to the illusions conveyed by social networks, advertisements, information with which our brains are watered and polluted”, through several crazy paintings, no way to introduce an exchange with everyone, in the same way. Especially when the exuberant actress plays in front of “sex criminals” at the Caen penitentiary center or college students at Molay-Littry in Bessin.
Ongoing work with disabled people
When she has things to say, in particular about her “involvement as an artist in society”, Émilie Horcholle still cultivates improvisation and strives to “take the present moment”. For her, this is nothing new. This comes to him from work and companionship with disabled amateur actors. She started early in the theater, at 18-19 years old, in parallel with her arts and entertainment license at the University of Caen. And without waiting, she gave lessons at the Papillon Noir Théâtre with Charly Venturini, then did workshops at the Bazarnaom, with the disabled. With “their pathologies and psychoses which mean that they will follow the score at their own pace, according to their feelings”.
They play like everyone else, but don’t hide behind appearances.
She admits it openly: “Without them, young actress, I would not have continued. In the artistic world, with its networks, you have to find your place, there is competition. They don’t judge. They taught me another way of seeing the world. With them, I had the right to be who I was. » Truthful Veronique owes them a lot. And Émilie Horcholle pays them back, she who relaunched her company Absolument! to continue on the common path. In November, the actress resumes his “adapted theater” classes at the Comedie de Caen.
Practice. After the Aurillac festival, the veridical show Véronique is performed in Hérouville on September 4 during the Escales estivales, and on October 14 for the season opener in Hermanville.
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