In 20 years of career, 20 years of traveling the province with a style as salacious as it is felt, as shocking as it is invigorating, Cathy Gauthier has carved out an enviable place for herself in the ecosystem of Quebec humor. Last Tuesday evening, at the Olympia, in front of a hilarious audience bringing together the press and the community, the 45-year-old Abitibienne unveiled Classichis fourth solo show.
Picking up right where she left off Not too Catholic planting her claws in the same fertile furrow of gender relations, the comedian who became a mother in 2018 has demonstrated beyond all doubts and for our greatest happiness that she was not about to settle down, not about to avoid sensitive subjects. Hardly has she thanked her accomplice Silvi Tourigny for having very effectively warmed up the room, than she remembers the good old days when you could still go out with friends in a bar and bite one or two thighs. “We others, we called it a Friday! ” The tone is set.
Without taboos and without detour
The red thread of the show is the experience of motherhood. We discuss in detail, and certainly far from any magic, with indelible images, the ins and outs of childbirth. Epidurals and hemorrhoids, tearing and stitches, hair loss and disappearance of eyebrows, vaginal dryness and lack of desire… All subjects are treated without taboos and without detour. Whether it pleases or not, Cathy Gauthier speaks loud and clear about the female body as it is. It pursues laughter, of course, but at the same time it demystifies, it legitimizes, it empowers, in short it helps to free speech, which is highly gratifying.
Sexuality always occupies a place of choice, but this time it is rather a question of deconstructing this reputation of “slut” which sticks to her skin. I’m not particularly good at the pipe, she explains, not expert handjob. Exploiting the hilarious discrepancy between her husband’s excessive libido and his own, limited, the comedian invites several sexual stereotypes, the better to shatter them. When, thanks to this brilliant invention that is the shower-telephone, the pleasure of the woman arises and overwhelms everything, we witness an apotheosis, a scene of anthology.
Casually, the comedian addresses serious subjects. It is a question of distribution in the couple of tasks and wealth, of independence and autonomy, but also of generalized anxiety and postpartum depression. To give us an idea of the state of apathy in which the antidepressants placed her, Gauthier recounts a visit to Jean-Coutu, where she won $4,000 at Loto-Max and didn’t give a damn. year 40. It is one of those pieces of bravery of which the humorist has the secret, moments when the actress takes over, where the body and the voice put themselves entirely at the service of the character and the situation.
There are a few softer passages, less skilful transitions, one or two bad taste jokes about the disabled, which fall flat, but the whole is simply admirable. Captivated by the beast of the stage, amazed by the author and moved by the woman, we leave the room with the zygomatics on fire.