In the vast literature of France’s former colonies, three characters are evoked repeatedly as persuasive figures of French influence and culture: the schoolteacher, the priest and a kind of benevolent French everyman. All three reappear in an autobiographical theater piece looking at immigrants’ integration in France : proof if necessary of the road French society still needs to travel to accept its citizens born of French colonial empire and its consequences.
Nasser Djemaï is a French actor born of Algerian parents. “Une étoile pour Noël” is a one-man show inspired by Djemaï’s own experiences growing up “other” in a largely homogenous society sharing an immutable collection of cultural references, from camembert to Catholicism to Corneille. The story he relates, with humor, irony and admirable energy, follows the education of Nabil, from primary school through to his baccalauréat, and the cast of characters who shaped him, the least of whom, apparently, is his hard-working though illiterate, father. Instead, Nabil looks to his teachers, who reduce him to the value of the grades he receives; a priest/scout leader offering a rousing republican religion of the masses touting teamwork over spirituality; and an upper-class grandmother, who takes quite literally upon her shoulders the “civilizing mission” of the French colonial power and who will convince him to dye his hair blonde, take the name of Noël and renounce his family.
The story of Djemaï/Nabil is not, however, one of happily-ever-afters: if Noël thinks he sees his name written in the stars, comfortably ensconced in his new life of Sunday afternoon’s at the Comédie Française and dinners with a good St-Emilion, his fall is all the more brutal, as the subtitle of Djemaï’s piece indicates. Teacher, priest and granny all conspire unconsciously to teach Nabil the lesson of charity’s great ignominy : that all the good intentions in the world, and no more so than those espoused by the French Republic, which attempts to erase differences, while failing to overcome latent racism and an ingrained cultural superiority, cannot make a bad situation better if those who are the object of such intentions are not involved consciously and actively in those changes and the decisions behind them. Nabil learns a lesson he won’t soon forget : as long as he is “Algerian” in others’ eyes, he can never by “French” even in his own.
Djemaï takes the path of least resistance to get his message across, using humor to render ridiculous the paradoxical narrow-mindedness of a society which aspires to all things fraternal and egalitarian. The recipe works, to judge from audience laughter and press reviews, emphasizing the comedy of Djemaï’s writing and acting (ably capturing the vocal resonances and discourses, in particular, of the various social “types” represented) rather than engaging his underlying, very critical message.
As a theater student in Birmingham and London, Djemaï would have experienced, and perhaps come to gain insight into the multicultural social fabric of Great Britain, where minorities are a visible and natural presence. In that light as well, "Une étoile pour Noël" presents an interesting reflection on the republican social model as instituted and practiced in France.
To Jan. 19, Tues-Sat, 9:30 pm, Sun, 3 pm, Lucérnaire, Centre national d’art et d’essai, 53 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, 6e, Mº Notre-Dame-des-Champs, 10€-30€, tel: 01.45.44.57.34.
