Jag & Johnny (theater) + Ceux qui me restent (screening)

Jag and Johnny

The play Jag and Johnny kicks off the evening in the distinctive style of Laurène Marx’s minimalist theater, combined with actress Jessica Guilloud’s impressive oral expression. In the style of a melancholic stand-up routine, Jag stands alone in front of a microphone that separates her from the audience, recounting her return to her roots—the white working class community of Isère. Without succumbing to “misery porn,” Jessica evokes these childhood places—teenage girls’ bedrooms, grandparents’ living rooms, community halls—where she feels at ease, even as she knows she no longer belongs there. Oscillating between the traumatic story of her dog Johnny and her own life journey, she explores the guilt stemming from her rejection of her culture of origin. Through the intensity of her narrative and the precision of her writing, Laurène Marx breaks away from the sociological view of the class defector and its academic jargon, highlighting the fact that one does not inevitably move from one social class to another as if stepping onto a springboard, but that one can sometimes get stuck in between.

Ceux qui me restent

The evening will continue with Jessica Guilloud’s documentary film, Ceux qui me restent, which complements the narrative and perspectives explored in Jag and Johnny.

Ceux qui me restent tells the story of the narrator’s return to her hometown to spend time with her uncles, Boy and Gérard. She says, “I want them to tell me about themselves, their lives, their youth, and my father, who died too young. There are always ghosts wandering somewhere in my family. I’m embarking on a quest to try to grasp a little of the complexity of the past, the present, and our endless grief.”

>>> The play Jag and Johnny runs 70 minutes, and the film Ceux qui me restent runs 23 minutes.