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Fissure de soeur
Sabine Revillet
Fissure de soeur
sweet little girl
Actes du théâtre n° 64.[ imprimer ]


On the one hand, Delphine bombards her mother with questions about life, childhood and what it will be like to be a woman. Her mother half-listens to her and sometimes explodes. When she has reached the end of her tether, her mother turns violent, suffering fits of anger from which Delphine does her best to defend herself. On the other hand, there is Karine, Delphine’s bosom buddy, a melancholic loner who utters weird, mysterious monologues about Jeanne, the Hurricane Woman. Delphine and Karine might be one and the same person. So might Delphine’s mother and the hurricane. Who knows? This is a simple fable about the unease and questions that arise before puberty, as well as the darker aspects of a family that has shut itself off from the outside.

Why the Reading Committee chose the Play: This text approaches the topic of violence against children in a reserved and offbeat manner without ever preaching. The author has her own very personal style, which involves long reels of words without any punctuation that closely follow the spoken word and display an incredibly intense use of language and a scathing sense of humour. The aggression and abuse take shape in the extremely rough style of writing and the headlong pace of the play. The text is trashy, knows no taboos and packs a real punch!

Author’s comments: “This is the story of a little girl called Delphine. She splits herself in half to survive and to escape her mother’s beatings. So then there are Delphine and Karine. Karine is her invented sister, her shadow, the little exile girl, the little ghost of a girl. Delphine dreams of being loved, of being elsewhere. That way she thinks she can escape from her misfortune. Fissure de soeur is a play for children. It tackles the topic of abuse from a poetic perspective – using poetry to escape from reality and to save oneself.
I like plays that are off-beat, lyrical, disturbing, when accidents happen on stage, clashes, ruins, the eerie, the distorted, when things go wrong and get out of hand, when things are inefficient and out of place.”

Characters : 1 women - 2 men - 2 little girls
Théâtrales - www.editionstheatrales.fr

DELPHINE
Mommy I want to have hair on my legs like you have
mommy.
Why do I just have peach fuzz and no hair yet is that normal?

THE MOTHER
STOP IT Delphine

DELPHINE
Karine has no hair too
when we play on the slide I can see
She doesn’t have any
Mommy?

Can I invite Karine over next Wednesday?
Mommy?

When can I shave my legs and pluck my eyebrows like you?

THE MOTHER
LATER

DELPHINE
When’s later?

THE MOTHER
At puberty. When you have your period
Now STOP IT
Delphine

DELPHINE
Mommy. What’s a period?
Karine told me one day I’ll have a period and so will she what is it?

THE MOTHER
STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT

DELPHINE
What’s a period?

THE MOTHER
BLOOD IT COMES OUT YOUR EARS AND NOSTRILS YOU PUT IN COTTON TO ABSORB THE CLOTS YOUR BELLY LOOKS LIKE FRANKESTEIN’S FACE AND YOUR BREASTS GUSH AND BURST LIKE FIREWORKS WHEN YOU MEET A MAN YOU’RE HALF MAULED AND HAVE A GIRL BY HIM BY CAESAREAN THAT LOOKS LIKE AN ALIEN YOUR BODY IS CRUMBLING AFTER SHE STARTS TALKING SHE NEVER STOPS YOU WANT TO CUT OUT HER TONGUE BECAUSE SHE MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE GONE LOOPY YOUR DAUGHTER DREAMS OF HAVING BODY HAIR AS LONG AS TRESSES THAT WILL HANG DOWN LIKE ROPES YOU PROMISE HER
Now that’s enough Delphine all right?

DELPHINE
Mommy one day I’ll have hair on my legs and I’ll shave it
I’ll shave it like you do
Mommy
I’ll shave the hair on my legs and under my armpits