Elise McLeod is Guilty

Paris based Australian film and theatre director Elise McLeod directs French actress Camille Nahum in a one woman play that tackles pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood with honesty, grit and lashings of humour.

“It started from a book that Camille’s aunty had written in the 80s and was like a guide to pregnancy and having a baby called ‘Toutes Coupables’- ‘All Guilty,’” says McLeod after a performance at the Theatre du Gymnase in the 10th. “We’ve taken the structure and basic ideas and modernised it and made it a lot more trashy and vulgar and funny!”

McLeod first travelled to Paris on exchange when she was sixteen, came back to cook for six months when she was 20 and realised that once she knew what she wanted to do with her life, she had found her town. And so in ‘97, with fresh film and theatre directing ambitions, McLeod applied to Paris VIII University, boldly stating why her work as a chef qualified her for a directing role. She was accepted in the film making course and hasn’t looked back. McLeod has since directed long running theatre shows, made a handful of successful short films and works continually in an AD role on French films and commercials as well as teaching acting at ‘Bilingual Acting’ in the centre of Paris.

While McLeod has fallen in love with Paris for “the overall appreciation of culture, the lifestyle, the French, the food, the arguments, the winter light, the staring” and much more, she believes she’s lucky to not feel trapped within a mould. “Being a foreigner allows you to do exactly what you want and blame it on your culture,” she says. “So I don't feel I need to adhere to the appropriate way to behave. I can be cheekier.”

Toutes Coupables plays till December 31, the last month running alongside McLeod’s next theatre piece- which, for contrast, is all about death…

Toutes Coupables

Starring Camille Nahum

Directed by Elise McLeod

Theatre du Gymnase

38 bd Bonne Nouvelle 75010 Paris, M Bonne Nouvelle

Until December 31, 2007 Monday- Wednesdays 19:30

0142467979 www.toutescoupables.com by Ruby Boukabou as seen also on www.parisvoice.com