In Montpellier, the La Vista theater is a singular and recent place, camped for four years in an old chapel, in the heart of the city Gély, gypsy district of the city, close to the center. It is here that Ornella Dussol, a young Gypsy full of dreams, landed a subsidized job in 2020. She wears several hats there: ticket office, cleaning and mediation with the inhabitants to offer them to come to the shows. She also secretly cultivates an aspiration there: to become an actress.
At the same time, Azyadé Bascunana, 41, director of the Montpellier theater company La Chouette blanche, is in residence for three years at La Vista, with the mission of working with the inhabitants of the city. She herself lives in the neighboring district of Figuerolles, very close to this gypsy community that she does not know.
The day she meets the young employee, she suddenly feels that her project will come to fruition. “The first thing she said to me was: ‘You have the K.-O figure. !” We didn’t know each other. I was stuck” explains Azyadé Bascunana. “It just meant that you were very tired”, picks it up on the fly the young Gypsy. After this meeting and several tests on stage, including a reading of The Seagull, of Chekhov, the director of La Chouette blanche offers him to join her show. An opportunity ” unbelievable “confides Ornella Dussol who, since then, alternates between her rehearsals and her contract at La Vista.
“One foot in the city and one foot elsewhere”
At 31, Ornella Dussol, long brown hair, emerald green eyes and lipstick, is single, childless, with a job: “It doesn’t happen too much with us”, she laughs. She assumes her “atypical profile”, as she says. In the Cité Gély, a woman who works, ” it’s rare “, notes his mother, Elisa Dussol. And a Gypsy who steps onto the boards, as her daughter is about to do, is “something that not many people here understand”.
“I’m afraid that my community will laugh at me. For the Gypsies, the theater is entering a dark room, it’s darkness. And black, for us, is scary. » Ornella Dussol
On November 9 and 10, Ornella Dussol will therefore be one of the main characters in the play. Pink!, creation of Azyadé Bascunana, presented at the Théâtre Jean-Vilar, in Montpellier. The young actress stresses and laughs, calms down then becomes impatient, in short, she worries. She did not speak to any of her relatives about this theatrical adventure, except to her friend Kimberley. “I’m afraid that my community will laugh at me, she confides. For the Gypsies, the theater is entering a dark room, it’s darkness. And black, for us, is scary. »
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