All the world's a stage Archives - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

Au Festival d’Almada 2023: portraits de femme

By Janine Bailly | July 16, 2023

- La soumission à laquelle les femmes furent, au long des siècles, contraintes. La soumission à laquelle les femmes peuvent encore être forcées, selon le pays où elles vivent, la fonction qu’elles occupent au sein de la société, l’environnement politique, culturel, religieux qui est le leur : le théâtre, quand il s’inspire intelligemment de la réalité, sait la dénoncer, et cela sans exclure humour, poésie ni qualité littéraire.

Jogging, ou le théâtre comme agora, de et par Hanane Hajj Al

« Je suis un morceau de ce puzzle qu’est Médée », affirme volontiers Hanane Hajj Ali lorsqu’on l’interroge sur l’omniprésence de cette figure mythologique dans son “seule en scène”, une performance qui allie ses deux passions avouées, le théâtre et le jogging. Artiste, chercheuse et pédagogue, figure incontournable de la scène libanaise, elle se déclare citoyenne engagée, qui œuvre pour briser les tabous, les « tirer de sous le tapis » – sexe, religion, politique, le « triangle des Bermudes libanais ». Activiste convaincue, elle défend la liberté d’expression, la démocratisation et la décentralisation de la culture, dans un pays oppressif où toujours règne la censure.

Dans Beyrouth aujourd’hui sinistrée, sa ville qu’elle ne veut pas quitter, et dont elle partage les souffrances qui la ravagent depuis les événements de 2019, elle court pour, dit-elle non sans humour – car elle n’en est pas dépourvue, ce qui allège le propos dramatique – , elle court chaque matin afin de « prévenir le stress, la dépression et l’ostéoporose ». Courir est un rituel, le théâtre en est un autre : si Hanane est, ainsi que nombre d’actrices, hantée par le personnage de la Médée antique, elle s’est toujours refusée à endosser le rôle, tant elle jugeait impensable le fait de donner la mort à ses propres enfants. Mais un matin, les rêves dans lesquels elle se ressource en courant, et qui peuvent être songeries parfaitement érotiques, les rêves devenus cauchemars ont pris une couleur tragique. Son propre fils souffrant d’un cancer soudain, la terrible douleur de l’enfant déchirant alors son cœur de mère, elle a compris que, toutes, nous pourrions être, selon les circonstances, des “Médée” abrégeant par le crime ce qui nous deviendrait insupportable.

Alors, sur scène, entre imaginaire et réalité, entre comique et tragique, Hanane Hajj Ali nous conte ses “Médée” . De façon un brin parodique, la Médée fictive trahie par Jason, la magicienne maléfique, l’impitoyable tueuse de la mythologie grecque. De façon beaucoup plus grave et sérieuse, faisant sourdre l’émotion de son public, ses “Médée” réelles, libanaises et contemporaines. C’est l’histoire restée mystérieuse et controversée d’Yvonne, mère de famille qui, en 2009, assassina ses trois filles avant de se donner la mort. C’est le drame de Zahra, jeune femme traditionnelle, qui à la suite de l’homme aimé suivit un parcours religieux islamiste. Qui, après l’abandon de son mari, éleva seule ses trois fils en les prédestinant au martyre guerrier. La mort, ou le sacrifice, comme seul moyen d’échapper aux souffrances et violences de la vie. Dans cet esprit sera lue la très sensible lettre d’amour et d’explication qu’avant de se suicider, en 1941, l’écrivaine britannique Virginia Woolf destina à son mari. Voilée, dévoilée, les voiles que l’on met ou rejette, la perruque de même, les vêtements qu’on endosse ou défait, le maquillage appliqué ou fondu, le rire et les larmes, tout nous dit l’ambiguïté de nos existences de femmes.

Le dynamisme, l’énergie, la vitalité dont la comédienne fait preuve, elle les explique en disant « puiser dans la sève du sol à chaque catastrophe ». Pour avoir toujours la force de dénoncer et abattre les préjugés, sur les scènes de par le monde, au Festival Off puis In d’Avignon comme au festival d’Almada. Pour dénoncer les stéréotypes dont on charge les femmes dans le monde arabe. Pour rendre hommage aux femmes libanaises, aux mères libanaises, et à Beyrouth. Telle est l’ambition reconnue de Hanane Hajj Ali, et il faut dire qu’elle réussit dans cette entreprise généreuse, humaniste, quand bien même, selon ses propres dires, « si le théâtre ne change pas le monde, il aide à changer les esprits » !

P.S : il est possible après le spectacle de se procurer le texte du monologue, en arabe, anglais et français, pour « aider à la liberté d’expression au Liban ».

J.B, Almada, le 10 juillet 2023

la source de ce texte est Madinin Art

Ola Dada: interview with the award-winning Canadian stand-up comic

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 12, 2023

Is stand-up comedy a form of theatre?.Some would say no, but I would beg to differ especially in the light of the work of Ola Dada, one of the newest and most talented stand-up comedians who comes out of Fort McMurray by way of Nigeria. I have just seen a performance by Ola at the Absolute Comedy Club in Ottawa where he had the audience howling with laughter and the actor was good enough to grant me this interview the morning after his opening show.

A.R. Your talents are so diverse that it is difficult to define the nature of this special sort of “stand-up” but what emerges is both the way you deconstruct ideas that appear unacceptable and the way you show your great gifts as an actor. You not only speak beautifully but you also use your whole body on stage including your facial expressions. and even your eyes. You change your style of speech at the drop of a hat. As well, when something strikes you as problematic you unexpectedly stop what you are saying and suddenly laugh at the audience . You break the tension by changing the tone and style of your speech with a huge smile. You are a perfect verbal and corporeal mimic and consequently, you are clearly an excellent actor! It is quite amazing. How is it that you perform this way? Is it something you picked up naturally or was it a technique you were taught?

O.D. Actually I speak very quickly and I can tell that if people are laughing very hard. they will not hear my response so to break the rhythm , I breathe for a second and that moment of change is as much for myself as for the audience. It comes down to creating a space for people in the audience to reset their reactions. Sometimes I stop completely if I have made a very funny joke. These jokes are quite loose but when I’m on stage I could very well come up with a new line as opposed to the one I had already prepared. That depends very much on the audience reaction. Sometimes if it works very well I will expand on the joke or if it is not closely related to the punch line I don’t expand anything but just keep my lines moving. The audience neither knows what is coming nor what is supposed to be a big laugh so I have to change the script based on their spontaneous reaction to the joke. That is how I gage my interaction with them….it is actually a little dance that we do. I know I don’t always talk about things related to the experiences of a lot of people but what I try to do is to describe the event and then bring the audience into it.

A.R. Do you improvise a lot on stage

O.D. All the time. I don’t have a script but I have a set list of jokes that I intend to go through but within the jokes are set up in such a way that the “punch line” is at the end but when I enter that joke I haven’t completely memorized the way of saying it. What I do is try to get to the next joke with as few words as possible. The thing is to keep the audience engaged. That makes it possible for a person to watch the show one night and then return the next night and laugh at different parts of the same joke because that content always seems to be changing.

A.R. I like the way you seem to be speaking very seriously and suddenly you stop, change the tone; then you laugh, look at the audience and say something that is ridiculous and the audience howls. If you connect with the spectators is it based both on what you say or on your physical reaction and your mime? I had the impression it was based on everything given the fact that you are not just a stand up comic but you are a real actor and a very good one. For example all that business about pigeons was so funny.

O.D. Pigeons are scary!

A.R. What is scary about pigeons?

O.D. The eyes! They terrify you . But mainly they poo on your head! There are a lot more pigeons in Toronto than there are in Vancouver, because people feed them in Toronto. It was very concerning for us. Pigeons there seem to be so comfortable with human beings. I had never seen that before, honestly. There was a regular guy sitting on a bench talking on the phone and a pigeon sat right beside him for such a long time and the fellow wasn’t even feeding it. The pigeon just watched him talking and I asked myself…What is happening here?

A.R. Your talent for mime was revealed at that point because when you explained how you didn’t like pigeons. You started twitching your head back and forth like a pigeon, in fact you became a pigeon. It was absolutely fantastic. You are almost as good as Marcel Marceau! did you study mime?

O.D. No. Its just that in terms of stand up comedy, the people (or animals) I watch have to provide a visual description in terms of how they express themselves and what they do. It is also necessary to do that to get to the next level of stand-up because the people who decide feel it is important for the audience to see what you are talking about and that way it is easier for the spectators to laugh so I try to become the character (whether its my mom, my father my manager, a pigeon or a horse).

A.R. I gather audiences are different in each of the cities where you have performed: Vancouver, Fort McMurray, Toronto and Ottawa. If so what are the differences?

O.D I found that people are more relaxed in Vancouver and they laugh differently. There I get the feeling that they aren’t sure they should laugh at different stuff but I do understand when people are enjoying themselves when they smile or cover their face. Its because the culture is different in each city. In Toronto people give big loud laughs to represent their expressive personalities. Las night in Ottawa people gave a whole body laught!.

A.R. Chris Timms, the host of the evening, also a very professional comic delivered his speeches in a very definite rhythm so what he said almost sounded like poetry and your work has a lot of that quality. You maintain a rhythm even when you are interrupted by the physical or vocal reactions, sudden spurts of loudness or swearing but the rhythm was almost hypnotic and quite extraordinary.

O.D You have a good ear because a lot of people who come to stand up don’t catch that. The rhythm is like the timing up to the punch line. If you watch a stand-up comic you can tell where the joke is going and when the punch-line is about to hit and you obviously caught that yesterday.

A.R. Is there anything else you would like to say about the way you work?

O.D Oh man! I listen a lot to my jokes. Usually I record them and listen to them afterwards because writing down my jokes slows down the creative process as opposed to recording them and then adding verbally what I want to do. I will watch the film (also recorded), listen to the joke change it and record it again and listen to it again. so I have the new version immediately without rewriting it.

A.R.You do that at home after the show.

O.D. Yeah! And sometimes watching these recordings I do realize where I should pause or what I should emphasize. For example, the joke about going into a public sauna naked with your friends. When you start the show you want to get the first laughs as quickly as possible. And when I make fun of a place it isn’t in a malicious way. For example. when I spoke of Saskatoon ….I try to find a factual issue with which no one can disagree. I said Saskatoon is flat whereas Fort McMurray is cold. A lot of times people will say “so you hate fort McMurray?” and I answer “no I hate the cold”…which doesn’t upset anyone.

Actually I love stand-up comedy. It’s a very versatile kind of performance that can be represented in any shape or form. And even though I think I have learned everything about it I watch someone do something I haven’t seen before I learn new things.

When you start with stand-up you do 5 minutes, then a strong 5 minutes, then 1 0 minutes , then a strong 10 minutes, then a strong 20 minutes but the leap from 20 to 45 minutes is big leap..You might even perform those 20 minutes for a couple of years before you graduate to 45. I finally had enough contact with the audience for a 45 minute set but I did not have the rhythm nor the pacing . Also when people are sitting down listening to stand-up and laughing for 20 minutes or more, they get tired so I had to learn to slow down because if I came in and immediately started pushing one joke after another, you can end up talking through the laughs and one has to learn to pace the jokes so as not to “step on the laughs “ as they say but you have to learn to slow down and then speed up and then slow down and continue changing like that so the people are given time to laugh. It all concerns ones sense of rhythm and the fact that the comic keeps the energy in the room alive.

A.R. Your ear is very good, you have the ear of a musician orchestrating your voice.

O.D Yes, because you have to listen to the type off laugh that includes the energy and the mood of the audience. Finally tell what was your favorite joke?

A.R. I liked the way you portrayed your parents when they expressed their concern about your becoming a stand-up comic. They spoke english with a Nigerian accent and your father had a low gruff voice.

O.D. My dad’s voice is much deeper than mine.

A.R But you brought yours down. and then I also liked the performance of the friend of yours “Mista Dray”.He obviously didn’t have the same amount of experience you had but he showed a lot of promise.

O.D. He drove three hours from Oshawa just to be with us last night. He has worked in Toronto and in Ottawa and will soon be performing as I am.

A.R. Thank-you so much for this interview and we hope you return soon to Ottawa, perhaps performing on the larger stage of a legitimate theatre like the GCTC or the Gladstone.

Angels in America de Tony Kushner

By Alvina Ruprecht | May 29, 2023

« Angels in America », m.e.s. Arnaud Desplechin à la Comédie française

14 mai 2023

—Par Dominique Daeschler —

La reprise d’Angels in America de l’américain Tony Kushner, réaffirme avec vigueur, la pertinence d’un questionnement sur une Amérique puritaine, obsédée par le mal sa punition divine. C’était hier avec l’explosion du sida et le haro sur les homosexuels C’est aujourd’hui avec l’avortement.

Le texte, s’il n’est plus un texte d’intervention fait toujours écho. Arnaud Desplechin, en cinéaste, découpe en plans, en séquences, s’amuse de jouer du décalage de la parole théâtrale, nous revoyant à nos références shakespeariennes, brechtiennes pour mêler poétique et politique en astucieux travellings. Devant l’Amérique ébahie, des homosexuels se découvrent, s’aiment, se quittent, se renient ou affirment la réalité d’une forme d’amour là même où le sida l’attaque. De Louis à Prior, De Belize à Roy Cohn et Joe, s’échangent des paroles secouées comme dans ces roues de la chance qui cherchent la combinaison gagnante.

File le temps de Reagan à Trump, de Tchernobyl à la fin de l’URSS. Les éléments d’une Amérique melting-pot se trouvent rassemblés par un dénominateur qui s’appelle homosexualité et un révélateur qui s’appelle sida qui sera sauvé, qui sera puni ? Pardon et culpabilité.

Sur fond de planisphère, toile de décor, des anges, représentant chacun un continent, tombent du ciel , aveux d’impuissance ou de rédemption.

Une distribution très homogène de la subtile Dominique Blanc au constant Michel Vuillermoz, enrichie par la présence de jeunes sociétaires : Jennifer Decker, Julien Frisson, Gael Kamilindi, Florence Viala, Jérémy Lopez, Clément Hervieux-Léger nous offre trois heures de pur bonheur.

This article was written by Dominique Daeschler first posted on Madinin Art (le blog martiniquais) and finally reposted by Alvina Ruprecht on the Capital Critics Circle. We share the most interesting articles on international theatre!

Théâtre Vollard : Une compagnie théâtrale fondée par Emmanuel Genvrin à l’île de la Réunion

By Alvina Ruprecht | April 24, 2023

Pour ceux qui s’intéressent à l’activité théâtrale de la France d’outre-mer, cette immense étude de trois tomes et plus de mille cinq cent pages* serait une excellente introduction. Cette œuvre s’inscrit dans un rapport très personnel avec la matière puisqu’Emmanuel Genvrin fut celui qui a créa la compagnie Vollard, orienté son évolution et enrichi ses texte par sa connaissance des mythes et de la culture populaire de la région. Il faut ajouter que cette histoire est aussi celle de sa propre vie, celle de son amitié avec les artistes: comédiens, musiciens, danseurs auteurs dramatiques, poètes, historiens, linguistes, scénographes et compositeurs,

En guise d’introduction, Emmanuel renvoie à un essai important de Maria Clara Pellegrini (Tome 1, p.17-31) où cette professeure et historienne du théâtre donne des pistes sur le travail de la compagnie. Selon Mme Pellegrini, la Réunion n’a ni réussi à engager une réflexion critique sur la période coloniale ni constitué une identité nationale. En 1979, époque de la création de la troupe, l’île n’était pas encore affranchie de l’hégémonie de la culture française, ni du malaise qui frappait les historiens lorsqu’il s’agissait de parler de colonisation et d’esclavage . Le travail du théâtre Vollard constitua à corriger cette “aphasie historique”.

Mme Pellegrini renvoie à d’autres lieux et à d’autres auteurs, aux Antilles et en Afrique (tels Aimé Césaire en Martinique ou Léopold Sédar Senghor au Sénégal) qui se sont exprimés contre l’esclavage et les malheurs de la colonisation. Il est vrai que l’esclavage apparaissait comme un sujet de moindre importance dans l’histoire de l’océan Indien en comparaison de celle des colonies caribéennes de la France. Une anomalie corrigée par Emmanuel Genvrin avec ses pièces Marie Dessembre et Etuves et L’Esclavage des Nègres explorant les rapports entre maîtres et esclaves. La question, coloniale et contemporaine, de l’émigration entre les Dom-Tom et la métropole est évoquée dans Nina Ségamour, Colandie ou Séga Tremblad.

Pour ce qui est de l’attitude critique et provocatrice de son fondateur, elle était mise en évidence par le fait qu’il donna le nom de Vollard à sa troupe de théâtre. Ambroise Vollard , né à la Réunion, fut un marchand de tableaux jouissant d’une excellente réputation parmi les artistes de toute l’Europe et au-delà. Ce qui attirait l’attention de Genvrin fut sans doute la proximité entre A. Vollard et Alfred Jarry, le créateur du d’Ubu, pièce qui se distingua dans le théâtre français en tant que parodie de Macbeth de Shakespeare, tandis qu’Ambroise Vollard reprenait le personnage dans l’Almanach du XX^èsiècle puis dans des piécettes en 1914-1920 en se moquant des traditions de son pays d’origine. Genvrin reprit le personnage dans Votez Ubu Colonial pour exprimer son propre regard sur La Réunion et la politique insulaire.

Lors d’un séjour dans cette île, j’ai fait la connaissance de l’auteur qui m’a offert un grand nombre de ses livres alors que, en conflit avec les autorités, il était menacé de fermer son théâtre. Parmi eux, le fameux Votez Ubu Colonial en livre de poche (le Tome III, p. 8-133 analyse le livre en détail). L’ouvrage est intéressant puisqu’il résume les œuvres créées par la troupe jusqu’en 1994, date de la création de la pièce. Il reproduit également les dessins d’un artiste local, Serge Huo-Chao-Si, – dont le style rappelle celui de Pierre Bonnard – qui illustra l’édition des Ubu. Votez Ubu Colonial, de Genvrin, reproduisait aussi des partitions de musique de Jean-Luc Trulès, bien avant celles des opéras que lui même et son collègue compositeur allaient produire quelques années plus tard. La contribution de Trulès s’avérait majeure parce qu’ajoutant une grande variété de formes musicales dont les sources européennes et indo-océaniques correspondaient à la philosophie artistique de son ami Genvrin. Le résultat était une vision tout à fait unique et très différent de ce qui se produisait auparavant dans la région.

Ambroise Vollard […] que Genvrin s’était permis de faire revivre à travers le personnage d’Ubu créé par Alfred Jarry […] est le dénominateur commun.[…] Jarry donna son nom à ce fantoche en le portant à la scène en 1896. Pour certains, il s’agit d’une image prophétiquement vraie , annonciatrice de futures monstres nés à partir de la guerre de 1914 (Votez Ubu Colonial, p.1)

Dans le même livre, Genvrin présente une préface rédigée par Agnés Antoir, historienne, professeure et présidente de l’Association Théâtre Vollard. Le texte saisit l’importance de la musique du compositeur Jean-Luc Trulès qui a magnifié les productions de la compagnie et séduit non seulement le public local mais aussi les habitants de Madagascar, de l’Ile Maurice, ou de la Métropole.

La préface et la postface étaient suivies d’un glossaire pour aider les lecteurs à comprendre des expressions créoles argotiques.

Voici une sélection:

Argent braguette = allocations familiale

Cafre = noir

Dodu = prison réunionnaise

Faire tantane = ne rien faire, fainéanter

Gros zozo = riche, puissant

La dit-la fait = commérage

Maîtresse poulet = métropole

Jamaïque = célèbre décharge public

Madame Gaspard = Madagascar

Sarda = libérateur d’esclaves

Zamal = marijuana

Zoreil = metropolitain

Cette préface résume les premières quinze années de la troupe et les moments les plus importants de son évolution. Elles sont suivies du texte intégral et d’autres tirés des œuvres d’Alfred Jarry dans une version publiée en 1962. Ainsi, les curieux peuvent faire la comparaison entre les deux textes : la version de Jarry dénonçant les exactions des dictateurs européens, et la version de Genvrin s’en prenant ironiquement aux groupes nationalistes et racistes opposés à la décolonisation. (les conflit entre l’OAS et les Algériens dans les années 1960 en lutte pour leur indépendance serait un rapprochement à la faire).

Par ailleurs, le “Véritable portrait de Monsieur Ubu”, dessiné probablement par Jarry lui-même, évoquait une figue à peine humaine avec une tête pointue et un énorme ventre, à la fois ridicule et effrayant. En revanche, l’Ubu d’Emmanuel Genvrin dessiné par Serge-Huo-Chao-Si et publié en couverture de Votez Ubu Colonial, est la caricature grotesque d’un homme noir, suggérant des dictateurs Africains comme Bocassa ou Idi Amin Dada. Votez ubu Colonial associe des événements actuels (la guerre de Yougoslavie, les massacres du Rwanda et les propres déboires de sa compagnie avec les autorités réunionnaises.

Alfred Jarry est mort en 1907 à la veille de la première guerre mondiale; Ambroise Vollard est mort en 1939 à la veille de la seconde après avoir amassé une fortune en tant que vendeur de tableaux. Genvrin n’a pas voulu rendre hommage au bourgeois mais à celui qui a repris dans ses écrits le personnage d’Ubu en l’associant à l’île de La Réunion. Il imagina le premier un bouffon vulgaire, incarnation de l’oppression des habitants de l’île. Genvrin, avec son esprit rebelle, reprit le flambeau. La rencontre de ces deux personnalités fut parfaite.

Le texte de Genvrin se termine par une postface (p, 169-181) intitulée “Ré-Ubu-yon , j’aime ton nom” célébrant l’origine de la colonie en s’appuyant sur des faits historiques.

On célébrait récemment à la Réunion un “singulier anniversaire,”, celui du bicentenaire du nom même de l’Ile qui de Bourbon devint La Réunion, par une décision de la Convention le 19 mars 1793”. Le texte constate la contradiction entre les intentions officielles des fondateurs de la colonie, c’est-à-dire réaliser l’utopie d’un idéal d’harmonie, de liberté et de fraternité universelle, et le fait que ces grands principes étaient apparemment trahis par ceux qui tentaient de réduire Genvrin au silence en refusant sa vision critique de cette histoire.

Grace à Emmanuel Genvrin, son théâtre est devenu une vaste laboratoire de recherche transculturelle et intellectuelle où de multiples réseaux de significations , de sens et de pratiques s’entrecoupent afin de divertir le spectateur et le faire réfléchir . Genvrin a créé une vingtaine de pièces de théâtre et trois livrets d’opéra abordant les problématiques de l’histoire de l’île . Malgré la qualité de ses productions scéniques et publications, la troupe souffrit des décisions de l’administration française puisqu’à partir du moment où l’Ètat constata l’attitude critique de l’auteur à l’égard de la politique coloniale, il entreprit de ruiner son théâtre et traduire son directeur en justice.

La réponse de Genrin fut de sauver la mémoire de sa troupe. Le résultat est cette étude impressionnante reproduisant des pièces intégrales, des livrets d’opéra et des partitions destinées à siéger dans les bibliothèques. Il a ainsi contribué à prolonger le souvenir de cet extraordinaire phénomène théâtral.

· Emmanuel Genvrin, Théâtre Vollard (TomeI 1981-87; Tome II 1988 – 1993; Tome III 194-2021). L’Harmattan , Paris, 2022

Heartlines: an engaging new drama that opens the world for women artists in Europe.

By Alvina Ruprecht | July 15, 2022

by Alvina Ruprecht

Margo MacDonald t Margo Macdonald and Maryse Fernandes

Photos Andrew Alexander

Heartlines closes the spring season of 2022 in the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. It is a memory play which foregrounds not only interesting theatrical representations of gender but also experiments in theatrical form itself as the author and the director draw examples from Cabaret, from visions of sets that displace the spectator through the streets of Paris suggesting the period of the 1920’s when the new modernist creativity was booming.

The protagonists are two famous lesbian lovers immersed in the artistic experiment of Surrealism. Lucy Schwab is better known as the photographer Claude Cahoun who assumed the identity of a man (played by Margo MaacDonald). She accompanies Suzanne (Maryse Frenandez) who designed daring new clothes and together, their visual experiments echoed by the light infused multilayered set immediately brings their world to life.

The play begins in the past , as the less emotionally explosive Suzanne opens the show by digging around in the dusty contents of an old trunk full of theatrical costumes hidden away in an attic space. As she pulls out these remnants of their past, a mysterious blond woman suddenly materializes, swimming across the back of the stage , following a narrow surface of water, defined by a long line of arms, legs and body parts, (suggesting the work of Hans Arp), indicating a watery game of chance introduced by the Surrealists – the Cadavre exquis- a new form of Surrealist poetry. Sentences are accumulated on a sheet of paper, with no attempt at any logical links . These are the leftovers of a dismantled collage that some giddy Dada enthusiast might have imagined.

Rapidly the lights change, as lighting designer Tristan-Oivier Breiding’s magical effects, capture the shift in time-line bringing us into the pre-war period of their adventure. The two girls decide to go to school in Nantes and live out their lives together as a couple.

Lucy Schwob, is clearly the more theatrical character of the two – feisty, anxious to get on with her sexual discovery and take on the physical and social challenges of their relationship. Each one complements the needs of the other and they turn into the perfect performing duo.

Canadian playwright Sarah Waisvisz then inserts her lovers into the world of great literature by suggesting that the passionate 12th century love story of Héloise and Abelard. is similar to the one we are witnessing on the stage. Waisvitz uses this poetic reference to help us grasp the special relationship between the two friends who are not a traditional couple but who have dared to set forth their own values on stage. In fact the author uses the poet’s language to bring into focus the world of the palm reader, a world of “luminous intensity”, that “third gender” , a non binary relationship that has emerged within the very personal reality of these two special women.

Waisvisz suggests how the surrealist movement , because of its daring social and political theories, produced anger among bourgeois audiences , whose presence is perfectly illustsrated by Vanessa Imeson’s period costumes and Andrea Steinwand’s sets. The whole theatre was transported into the middle of this jolting new world in a breathtaking way. Both Surrealism and Dada rejected hitherto accepted norms of art , of moral and social behaviour and these two women’s behaviour scandalized French society.

The first part of the show is a series of realistic dialogues as well as a series of Cabaret sketches reproducing images they inherited from their artist colleagues whom they met in Paris and who made a strong impression on these young women. The Icons of well-know works of art come floating around the video screen : the pulpy lips of Dali paintings, the figures of de Chirico, the photographic art of Man Ray and many others.

Quickly the playful Cabaret tone among all these influences become tragic as WWII is declared and the two friends realize how dangerous it is for them to stay in Mainland France as lesbians and even moreso because Luci is Jewish. Thus they leave Paris for the Channel Islands.

At that moment the parody becomes a lot more subversive.

The musical performance by sound designer Scottie Irving was particularly moving as he caresses the piano keys, producing sad tones which capture the disturbing internal struggle of each of these women. Irving contributed much to the sensitive work of director Rebecca Benson, whose remarkable choices maintained an emotional distance from the moments brutality , especially when Claude Cahoun is arrested and tortured by the gestapo. The beating mimed by the actor, removed all sense of reality and thrust us straight into the domaine of pure performance.

Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, the whole team produced a most enthralling and sparkling performance worthy at times of a Mel Brooks musical (The Producers) especially in the second act where movement, mimicry à la Charles Chaplin, prevailed.

As soon as the occupying german forces arrived in France, we were confronted by the biting humour and brilliant satire of these great comedians. We saw the German goose-stepping soldiers, with their purposely hysterical mimicry, their hysterical screetching voicses. As well as campy red and black swastikas fluttering in front of the soldiers, a clear reference to the “Freedom convoy” that hit Ottawa recently. Veiled references to the politics of fascism raised its ugly head on stage. The timing could not have been better.

Solid acting techniques backed up by Brechtian theories of epic theatre( to destroy the illusion of reality but which was itself satirized) brought this to life as a tribute to theatre itself, ta great weapon of subversion.

The essential theatricality of this daring performance avoided the trap of realism which might have transformed us into voyeurs ,but this was not the case. What we saw was a staging that maintained a healthy distance between what the production company said what was happening and what it hoped the audience could imagine, something honest, profound, artificially coherent . A feat of artistic magic that evoked all levels of this difficult experience and made it work beautifully!

Serving Elizabeth: Television Centred Drama Asks Important questions about Colonialism

By Natasha Lomonossoff | June 17, 2022

Serving Elizabeth, written by Marcia Johnson and directed by Marcel Stewart, deals with contemporary concerns of historical representation and cultural accuracy in Western media. The inspiration for the play’s investigation, an episode of season 1 of The Crown in which a then Princess Elizabeth visits Kenya, provides a recognizable event for viewers to learn about the importance of which voices are included and which are left out in the re-telling of history. Although the initial presentation of sequences is a bit confusing (the play alternates between segments that take place both at the time of Elizabeth’s visit in 1952 and in the present day), Serving Elizabeth successfully gets its message across through the heated debates and exchanges that its characters engage in.

The show begins with a radio broadcast announcing the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, which occurred throughout the 1950s in that country, followed by a scene of a mother and daughter working together at a family-owned café. Mercy (Johnson) has an argument with her daughter Faith (Makambe K Simamba) about the latter’s educational prospects, quickly establishing the financial situation of these characters. Their fortune suddenly takes a turn, however, when an English traveller named Lester Talbot (Andy Trihardt) stops in. Upon sampling some of Mercy’s food, he offers her what is seemingly the chance of a lifetime: cooking for the Princess and the Duke of Edinburgh while they are staying in Kenya. This segment ends shortly after Mercy and her daughter deliberate over whether she should accept the position, shifting to the present-day storyline, which revolves around Tia, a young Kenyan-Canadian intern (also played by Simamba) working for a TV production company in Britain. Her company is planning to shoot an episode in Africa about the Princess’s very visit to Kenya, which inevitably ensues in cultural misconceptions which eventually pit Tia against the show’s writer, Maurice Gilder (Trihardt).

To its credit, the show includes some nuance in its handling of issues of privilege in storytelling, initially depicting Tia and her white English supervisor Robin (Shannon Currie) as holding divergent views on the monarchy. In an interesting role reversal, Tia thinks of the Royal family fondly, mentioning her desire to be a princess when she was younger, while Robin’s view of them is more jaded, seeing them as an archaic relic of an imperialistic Britain. An imagined conversation between Mercy and Elizabeth (Currie) also points to the potential of those in privileged positions to gain awareness of the experiences of ordinary people (and by implication, help effect change). This lesson, of course, is not just meant to be applied to figures such as the Princess, but to all of us who benefit from the promotion of certain narratives over others.

The struggles of the main characters Mercy and Faith/Tia, as women trying to make their voices heard, are captured well by the portrayals of Johnson and Simamba respectively. Convincing accents are also deployed for the Kenyan roles, grounding a firm sense of place for the segments that are set there. Andy Trihardt is also effective as both Lester and Gilder, with his characters’ privileged positions playing well against those of Mercy and Tia. Decent performances are given by Currie and Jordin Hall, who portrays the love interests of Faith and Tia from different time periods (though his accent as the British Steven slips at times). Indeed, the inclusion of a dialect coach among the creative team for the show alludes to the difficulty of mastering certain accents. In regards to the technical aspects, the over-hanging wooden arch and antique furniture of the set by Rachel Forbes is a highlight.

Serving Elizabeth by Marcia Johnson

Cast:
HRH Princess Elizabeth/Robin – Shannon Currie
Montague/Steven – Jordin Hall
Mercy/Patricia – Marcia Johnson
Faith/Tia – Makambe K Simamba
Talbot/Maurice – Andy Trihardt

Creative Team:
Director – Marcel Stewart
Set & Costume Designer – Rachel Forbes
Sound Designer – Andrew Penner
Lighting Designer – Echo Zhou
Assistant Sound Designer – Maddie Bautista
Stage Manager – Jordan Guetter
Intimacy Coordinator – Siobhan Richardson

The Secrets of Primrose Square a play by Claudia Carroll

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 7, 2022

Claudia Carroll, the author of “The Secrets of Primrose Square”, travelled 5,000 miles from her home in Dublin to attend the official premiere of her play at the Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa May 26. Quite a treat for the audience and especially for director John P. Kelly who after two years of not being able to work on stage, clearly felt that her presence was a much-deserved reward for all the bad luck his company has had during the pandemic as well as all the effort and love he poured into this extremely difficult play. Her remarks gave us to understand that she too found the event a treat.

This critic found that the written text held my interest by creating a microcosm of a certain Irish society y represented by three women living alone in a certain area in Dublin. The events are all captured on a single set split into several spaces that need no change of scenery, one great material advantage of the play.

As the lights come up. Susan, a mother raging with anger played by the most powerful Robin Guy, is sitting in the street howling insults at the upper floor of a window where light seems to indicate the presence of a young scoundrel whom she hates with a passion because she blames him for the suicide of her eldest daughter. However, the answer to that is not obvious until the second act and that to my mind was already a weakness in the play because the justification for her anger came too late and I’m not sure whether it was a problem with the text or perhaps with the screaming of the actress that made the scene a bit difficult to understand.

Nevertheless, the point is soon explained as the play evolves.

These three women are bound together by a personal tragedy or a terrible loss that is not necessarily obvious to the others at first but from which the “Secrets” of the title draws its name.

Melissa (Isabelle Kabouchi) , Susan’s youngest daughter, tells us of the disintegration of her home now that her father and mother are both away. The father is on military service in Lebanon and Susan, her mother, is having a mental breakdown. She needs drugs, she disregards the house and leaves piles of smelly laundry stinking up the place. Susan is the central figure here and Robin Guy captures her perfectly with all her rage and destructive behavior. She needs psychotherapy and there are some very emotional scenes of group therapy in a psychiatric ward in a local hospital which might bother anyone who has ever gone through that form of treatment.

Melissa, a disturbed youngster tries to survive the taunting by her snobby classmates by turning to a kindly neighbour Jayne, (Rachel Eugster). The result of this was a dramatic and depressing picture of this society indeed but I barely felt any emotion during the evening except towards the end. It could be that the style of the dialogue purposely prevented me from becoming personally involved.

What happens here is that the characters speak as though they were not confronting any one of their neighbors directly but rather speaking about what had already happened or was going to happen but not in the process of happening even though they were standing in front of the individuals they were addressing. Thus, the link between these three characters and the spectators was more intellectual than emotional.

Although, this indirect form of the dialogue was fascinating, it seemed to lessen the emotional relationship with onlookers by separating us from direct confrontation with the characters’ feelings that might have made more of an impact. There was much emotion during the scene with the psychiatric patients, and at the end , the dialogue assumed a form of reconciliation which also offered a feeling of relief. However, apart from these moments it was difficult to feel anything at all. Perhaps this is what the author intended?

More difficult to understand was the weakness of the acting. Rachel Eugster as Jayne the kindly neighbour who tries to help Melissa, flattened the emotional intensity of her character and really did her best with the Irish accent, but it did not work. This is an ongoing problem in Ottawa with accents and it seems to me that actors should either all speak their own form of English (if they are anglophones) or some form of language they can handle easily and not pretend to speak the way that is not normal for them. Most of these performers have not had professional stage training which would have solved that problem and the result is that we get such a mixture of accents that nothing is really satisfying, especially in a play that is ‘naturalistic’ and not stylized, where accents actually produce specific meaning. In fact, all three of the actors had the same problem and it made me uncomfortable.

Melissa the disturbed daughter was particularly weak. Her delivery was monotonous to the point that one wonders what she was doing in that play. It is clear from her bio that she had much less experience than the others and this, added to the weakness of her reactions in these difficult situations. In any case, the question of accents brought down the level of the show to a nonprofessional evening which was a shame.

Still, I was glad to have the occasion to discover this very sensitive author whom I did not know, and the audience seemed to appreciate the performance judging from their applause at the end. No standing ovations but those reactions are overdone in Ottawa and often don’t mean anything! A fine evening to bring Ottawa audiences back to the stage with a world premiere of a thought-provoking play.

The play is a coproduction by ‘SevenThirty Productions and Three Sisters Theatre Company . The Secrets of Primrose Square continues at the Gladstone until June 1, 2022. www.thegladstone.ca

Kafka adapté à la scène du Teatro replika de Madrid par Jaroslaw Bielski

By Francois Guillon | November 27, 2020

El proceso – Le procès

D’après le roman de Franz Kafka

Adaptation vers l’espagnol et mise en scène Jaroslaw Bielski

Au Teatro Replika à Madrid Novembre 2020

Une nouvelle adaptation de ce roman qui fait ressortir l’impuissance de l’homme actuel dans ce monde qu’il ne comprend plus. Il ne sait plus s’il est vraiment coupable de ne pas se plier au conformisme radical généralisé. Il ne sait plus ce qu’il peut faire et ne doit pas faire.

Jaroslaw Bielski ressort un aspect peu fréquemment noté de cette œuvre, son érotisme sous latent de la part d’un Kafka ayant des relations difficiles avec les femmes. Une sorte de culpabilité cachée de l’auteur. …

la Zarzuela : La Tempranica et la Vida Breve!! musique de Manuel de Falla – 2 pieces courtes!!

By Francois Guillon | November 15, 2020

Diptyque composé de La Tempranica (La tôt venue) et la Vida Breve

Ces deux œuvres étaient prévues pour une seule soirée mais les contingences de sécurité on fait qu’elles sont présentées en deux soirées.

Deux œuvres dont l’action est située à Grenade et dans ses environs. Le thème est similaire, une jeune gitane, belle, tombe amoureuse d’un noble ou d’un riche personnage. Son amour est partagé. Mais, après lui avoir juré un amour éternel, chacun des deux amoureux se marie avec une fille de sa classe et de son rang. Le premier final est réaliste mais le deuxième est dramatique. Les deux œuvres proposent une réflexion autour de la passion et de la fatalité.

De Falla s’est inspiré de la zarzuela de Geronio Gimenez pour les personnages, et pour certains airs de musique.

Ces deux pièces sont très véristes, la misère des gitans et leurs difficultés à survivre reviennent dans les chants et les chœurs. “Malheur à celui qui est né enclume et pas marteau” revient comme un refrain. …

Cyprus Avenue: A Shocking exploration of trauma and Identity

By Capital Critics Circle | November 14, 2020

Reviewed by Emmalynn Mallay in the theatre criticism class of Patrick Langston

Eric is convinced: His newborn granddaughter is Gerry Adams, the Irish Republican politician. Eric is haunted by the trauma of living through the Troubles, when Northern Ireland was rocked by bombings and conflict between the Catholic Irish Republicans and the Protestant British Loyalists that left thousands of civilians dead between the 1960’s and 1990’s.

Loyalist Eric (Stephan Rea) will not suffer Catholics, and certainly not Gerry Adams himself disguised as a newborn, in his house. Unaware of his psychosis, he hires a hit-man to take out his granddaughter, willing to do anything it takes to defeat the “fenians”. David Ireland’s 90-minute drama Cyprus Avenue explores what it means to be Northern Irish after a history of extremely partisan politics and having an identity which contradicts itself. Can one be both British and Irish? Is there a difference? Does it matter? Eric’s identity is shattered when he realizes he might, in fact, be Irish. …