The actress Chloé Oliveres uses self-mockery in her one-on-one performance “When I grow up, I'll be Patrick Swayze”

Chloé Oliveres takes on the feminine quest for love and Prince Charming with fierce humor (and tender humor too). Fabrice Cervel/Sud Hérault

With a lot of self-mockery and many dance steps, Chloé Oliveres looks at love and boys through the film “Dirty dancing”. Hot and breathtaking.

In her only-on-stage "When I grow up, I'll be Patrick Swayze", actress Chloé Oliveres, " torn between Simone de Beauvoir and John Travolta, between Patrick Swayze and Agnès Varda", puts through the mill the condition of women, princes charming and the love that , of course, rhymes with always but also with oven… She will be at the Creissan multipurpose room, this Friday, March 1, at 8:30 p.m., as part of the cultural season of Sud Hérault. Run to see it… before yet another viewing of "Dirty dancing", obviously.

"When I grow up, I'll be Patrick Swayze", where did you get the idea for this hilarious title ?

At first, I thought I'd call the show 'When I grow up, I'll be with Patrick Swayze', it came from the revelation I had when I was younger, when I had discovered the film "Dirty dancing" : I told myself that I too, when I grew up, wanted to become an actress to live such love stories with Patrick Swayze.

But the initiatory journey that I tell in the show is that you can be someone complete and fulfilled without a man on your arm. In fact, it's an encouragement for women to become the subject of their own lives and stop waiting for Prince Charming. What I discovered is that, ultimately, I am the man of my life!

You say that "Dirty dancing" is a feminist film. Really ?

I won't say that it's a feminist rant but I'm making a feminist reading of it because, by looking at it as an adult and going further than the romance between the two heroes , I realized that there were lots of significant things. Already, it was a woman who wrote it and another who produced it. Above all, at the center of the intrigue, there is the clandestine abortion of Penny, Johnny's dance partner and it is the character of Baby who replaces her at short notice.

Using a clandestine abortion as a pretext for a romantic intrigue, in a drama intended for teenage girls, was rather subversive in the heart of the Reagan years. But there are plenty of other aspects in the film that I draw on in the show. We are talking about a young woman who will emancipate herself from her father's tutelage, pursue her desire and discover her body through dance and sexuality. So, it is also a journey of emancipation for a woman.

Have women been too fed up with fairy tales and Prince Charming ?

Yes, it was an influence that probably wasn't very liberating. Conceiving love as the goal of life and passively waiting for it to arrive; telling ourselves that our life will be fulfilled and complete when we have finally met our other half, the man of our life, that deprives us of many other adventures. However, I do not deny not my blue flower side, but I also tell myself that it's important not to view existence as a fairy tale. 

In fact, your sentimental education is not Flaubert but Patrick Swayze ?

Yes, that's clear. I was born in the 80s and there was a boom in romantic comedies in the 1990s, from "Dirty dancing" to "Pretty woman" through "Bodyguard", "La Boum"… Today, it has changed a little but there are more and more stories or representations of women less corny and more diverse.

What made you want to go solo ?

Initially, it was because I wanted to write for myself, to speak in the first person, not to be just a performer but to see if I 39;had things to say. Without knowing if it would be funny or not, anyway. So I started with an autofiction through theater because it’s my field. And the wonderful meeting with Alain Debois, alias Papy (who brought out Jamel Debouzze, Blanche Gardin and Sophia Aram), definitely convinced me. It was he who pushed me towards comedy.

It's quite a hybrid show. I'm grabbing some codes from stand up – I address the audience, I make fun of myself – but other things are linked to my training as an actress, with some scenes acted and others told .

Is humor still a weapon to thwart preconceived ideas, combat stereotypes ?

Yes, because laughter and self-deprecation help to de-dramatize and create empathy, to bring kindness by even raising the veil over certain taboos. We manage to talk about complicated, delicate things.

"When I grow up, I will be Patrick Swayze", from and by Chloé Oliveres, Friday March 1, at 8:30 p.m., multipurpose room in Creissan. Prices: 5 €, 8 € and 12 €. Information and tickets: 04 67 62 36 26; www.lasaison-sudhérault.com.  I subscribe to read more