Cisgender actors playing transgender characters? A deprogrammed room in Paris

In the room For a while be small, a cisgender actress* portrayed a monologue written by a transgender woman. In the text, the latter recounted her gender transition. Faced with the outrage aroused by this appropriation, Theater 13 made up its mind cancel performances of the show.

A comedy that caused outrage

Originally, this text is the fruit of the work of a playwright and transgender woman, Laurène Marx. In 2015, the actress and director Lena Paugam bought the rights to this text to adapt it in a play, entrusting the role to a cisgender actress, Hélène Rencurel.

During performances of the show in Toulouse, the latter aroused strong reactions from the public. According to Figaroa the transgender actress would have declaimed the text herself on the square of the theatre in November. A strong gesture to protest against this appropriation. Finally, it is in Paris that the show will be deprogrammed by decision of Lucas Bonnifait, director of the Théâtre 13. He explains:

” I realized that some people were feeling Invisible for each, observe. We realized it too late, but it was important for us not to create more divisions. »

Laurène Marx brings the voice of transgender people to her show

If the case of For a while be small Particularly questionable is what the author of the original text Laurène Marx finally expressed the desire to embody her character herselfwhich was not initially the case.

Rehearsal for the show Lena Paugam being in preparation for a year, the latter has refused to change actressbut proposed to Laurene Marx of stage their own version of the opera. ” It was also important for her to do so, but she saw that our project also allowed her voice to be heard”To explain Lena Paugam. According to the latter, having a cisgender person play a transgender person is not problematic:

“We listen to and share the concerns of activists. This has to go through schools, which have to train transgender actors. But it seems to me It’s problematic to say that because you’re not interested, you don’t have the right to address a topic. »

Laurène Marx has finally staged her play, performed at the Théâtre de Belleville throughout the month of November. On the theater website, we can read about it “For a time be little is the story of a trans woman (…} told by a person who lived it, really lived it. In her flesh and in her friendship. And not yet another fantastic story, written or acted out by a non-trans person. »

*A cisgender person is someone whose gender identity matches the gender assigned at birth

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