La Tendresse de Julie Berès au Théâtre de la Concorde

How does one become a man? Or more precisely: how does one become a man without being confined by the models of virility, domination, and performance that continue to structure our imaginations? With “La Tendresse”, Julie Berès opens a space on stage and for dialogue where young men recount, navigate, and challenge the injunctions of masculinity.

Nourished by words, intimate experiences, and a performative and choreographic stage writing, the show blends direct addresses, narratives, dance, and collective energy to give voice to trajectories shaped by the contradictions of our era. Family, sexuality, heritage, violence, desire, vulnerability: these are the sensitive areas explored here without didacticism, but with intensity, humour, and directness. On stage, bodies speak as much as words. The group becomes a chorus, a confrontation, a support, a self-exposure. In this movement, La Tendresse does not seek to define “the man of today” but to open up breaches: towards other ways of inhabiting one’s place, of loving, of connecting with others, of escaping the archetypes that have shaped our imaginations. Going against caricatures, Julie Berès composes a vibrant, political, and deeply sensitive piece that questions less a fixed identity than a possibility of transformation. A way of shifting the lines of patriarchy, and of making the stage a place of questioning and reinvention, which arms us with hope.

Cast

Conception and direction Julie Berès

Writing and dramaturgy Kevin Keiss, Julie Berès, Lisa Guez, with the collaboration of Alice Zeniter

With: Creation of the role Bboy Junior (Junior Bosila), Natan Bouzy, Charmine Fariborzi, Alexandre Liberati, Tigran Mekhitarian, Djamil Mohamed, Romain Scheiner, Mohamed Seddiki

Alternating with Marin Delavaud (member of the Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin), Léopold Faurisson, Bel Abbes Fezazi, Saïd Ghanem, Guillaume Jacquemont, Sacha Négrevergne, Mathis Roche

Artistic references Alice Gozlan and Julie Pilod

Choreography Jessica Noita

Lighting design Kélig Le Bars assisted by Mathilde Domarle

Sound and music design Colombine Jacquemont

Assistant composer Martin Leterme

Set design Goury

Costume design Caroline Tavernier and Marjolaine Mansot

Stage manager Quentin Maudet

Tour stage manager A