She is on all fronts, the playwright and writer Yasmina Reza. One piece (James Brown put on curlers)a book (We come from far away, coll. Quarto, Gallimard) and now the prestigious Cino Del Duca world prize, on the proposal of the jury chaired by Amin Maalouf, the Perpetual Secretary of the French Academy, endowed with 200,000 euros (!), which crowns a work constituting “a message of modern humanism.
The Permanent Secretary of the French Academy does not hide his admiration for the author ofArt and of Serge, among other nuggets of a work inaugurated in 1987 with Conversations after a funeral : “Each novel, each short story, each story, each scenario, reveals her talent, her audacity, her inventiveness. It is obviously in the theater that her contribution has been the most significant. She is today one of the authors most performed and most translated contemporary works throughout the world.” The prize will be presented to him under the Dome of the Institut de France during the solemn ceremony to award the Grand Prizes of the Institute’s foundations, on June 19. Interview.
L’Express: You have received numerous awards in your capacity as a playwright and the Renaudot prize for Babylon in 2016. Is this Cino Del Duca World Prize especially valuable to you?
Yasmina Reza: I take the awards with joy, gratitude and relatability. This Cino del Duca World Prize is a very nice prize and particularly honors me given the list of my illustrious predecessors. When one carries out an activity intended for public judgment, one cannot complain of being distinguished. That said, I have never confused distinction with the value of work. The prices encourage but do not reassure.
This prize crowns a career and a work which constitutes, I quote, “a message of modern humanism”. Is being a dedicated author so comfortable? Or does it make you fragile?
I don’t really know what “devoted” means. I don’t feel so different from when I started. There is even a new fragility, or rather fragilities, which has appeared. Less credulity and paradoxically less confidence.
This “trophy” is awarded by French academicians. In this regard, have you been approached by them to be part of their august company, and if so, why did you refuse to introduce yourself? Would green bring bad luck?
I don’t feel like it’s my place. I don’t have the temptation to belong to an institution.
Previous winners include Jean Anouilh, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Jorge Luis Borges, Milan Kundera, Konrad Lorenz, Andreï Sakharov, Mario Vargas Llosa, Patrick Modiano and even Joyce Carol Oates, Haruki Murakami… Which of these authors do you feel like? the closest ?
I admire them all. You see this list is magnificent! Let’s say the two that are most familiar and closest to me are Milan Kundera and Jorge Luis Borges.
The prize is worth 200,000 euros. An impressive sum… enough to buy many whiteboards?
Haha. Yes, I will be able to buy three Antrios [NDLR : un peintre fictif] and a half while chatting. The painting of Antrios in Art is estimated at 60,000 euros.
Playwright, you refine your dialogues. Is this why you want to reread your interviews carefully, or even write down your answers directly like here?
This certainly has something to do with writing. Ideally I would not express myself other than through my work. Any added words seem ultimately unnecessary to me. But if I do, I can’t help but control the outcome. When I didn’t have the leisure to reread, I often couldn’t find my voice.
The words matter, their order, their choice. Furthermore, I was able to verify that you are still being told, sometimes years later, what you said. This is why I want a certain precision.
You have rich news. One piece, James Brown put on curlers, nominated for the Molière award for living French-speaking author, a Quarto entitled On comes from far away. Yet another honor for this prestigious collection that is Quarto?
I see it more as a gift. An object which allows an objective linking of writings from various dates and periods and which nevertheless respond to each other. It’s a new life for them. There is also a dizzying aspect to the sum. Since my books are relatively short, I didn’t realize I had written so much. And there is not everything in this volume.
You have selected 10 literary texts for this collection. Was the choice difficult to make? Is there one of these texts, play or novel, that is particularly close to your heart?
The choice was quite simple. Folio Editions published the complete Theater not long ago. Also, apart from Art And The God of carnage, I favored everything that was not theater. As for the second part of your question, I obviously have favorites. I would quote Adam Haberbergperhaps my least known book, for which I feel particular tenderness.
You publish a number of photos and personal documents, of your grandparents, your parents, your sister, your brother, “Mademoiselle”, your friend Moïra, your agent and friend Marta… already mentioned in Hammeklavier. Was this natural for you, who, being rather discreet, hardly likes to reveal your privacy?
Oh no. Not at all natural. This biographical notebook worried me, I didn’t see why I had to provide private elements under the pretext of compilation. And then the idea came to me to build this notebook from Nowhere, which was already an autobiographical story. And by extension to document everything related to writing.
The people you mention have all been in my books. Most are in it by name and the others like my editors contributed to the very existence of the works.
Among other documents, we find the manuscripts ofArt and of Hammerklavier. Do you still write by hand?
There is always a passage by hand. There are always notebooks. But the handwritten part is still less and less as you get used to the keyboard.
You also publish some drawings by your husband, Didier Martiny. Was it important that he was also present in this Quarto?
The presence of Didier Martiny in this Quarto is obvious. He inspired me, influenced me, and I wrote about him. He is someone whose importance I can easily see in the creation of certain characters.
In your biographical references, you say you are “capable of the most violent nostalgia for spaces” where you have never been. Can we be nostalgic for unknown times and places?
Yes. I don’t know what I can add. It’s a difficult thing to explain, nostalgia for what we haven’t experienced. But it exists. Perhaps we carry more within ourselves than we know or believe.
Precisely, you give “a heavy, and even ancient, meaning” to your mother’s return to her native country, Hungary. What do you mean ?
I am nourished by mythologies that celebrate the return to the place of origin. It can go fromUlysses to Francis Cabrel. It’s like nostalgia: it speaks to me and at the same time it is not based on any concrete reality for me. It’s a kind of fantasy lived in the imagination or in an unknown place of oneself, as strongly as in real life like I believe a large part of the material we use literaryly.
You have this amusing reflection about the paternal ancestors buried in the Jewish square of Montparnasse, “a sort of social promotion that they are there in the heart of Paris, next to people known in French culture as the nouveau riche of death”. Is it just a touch of humor or also a reminder of the strength of integration of the French model?
Neither. That’s just the way it is.
After the success ofArt, inspired by the white canvas purchased by your friend Serge Goldszal, he asked you to put a “Serge” in each of your works. Request granted! Did you take this request as a game from the start?
Yes of course. A serious game. I’m quite fond of constraint. This little challenge amused me, especially since I really like inventing names. Serge Othon Weill will have nothing to do with Serge Gautheron. Serge walks from book to book, always different, sometimes like a shadow, sometimes central.
This Quarto was unanimously praised by the press. Do all these laudatory articles still make you as happy or do you no longer pay much attention to them?
I receive them with pleasure. I think it’s a good thing for the book. I don’t pay too much attention to specific content because I fear reading things about myself, good or bad.
Ukraine, Gaza, Israel… wars occupy everyone’s minds. Have you thought about speaking out about these different conflicts? Or do you consider that words, like art, can do nothing against criminals?
My vision of life is expressed in my writing. Contemporary material is strongly present. If you read me correctly, you will find a number of questions and interrogations. I don’t see what I could add with words outside this field and I don’t see in what capacity I would express myself.
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