Great things are happening these days at the Théâtre La Licorne. In Pipelinerarely heard voices rise to tell the poignant story of a mother who sees her son’s life take a disturbing tangent.
Posted yesterday at 12:00 p.m.
Produced by the Montreal company Black Theater Workshop (BTW), which has worked for 50 years to promote works from the black community, the play Pipeline depends on the event. For a rare time, the work of the BTW is presented in an institutionalized French-speaking theater. The progress is to be celebrated.
We must also rejoice at the discovery of a strong word: that of the American author Dominique Morisseau, translated here with brio by Mishka Lavigne. There are nuggets in the repertoire of black communities that are struggling to reach a wider audience. Pipeline is part of.
The play tells the story of Nya, a single mother (played with tremendous aplomb by the big revelation of this show, Montrealer Jenny Brizard), who teaches in a secondary school. One day, his teenage son Omari (moving Grégory Yves) is involved in an event and risks expulsion from the private boarding school where he studies.
A chasm then opens under the feet of the overwhelmed mother. She fears the worst for her son, aware that for young black men, dropping out can cause a downward spiral that leads straight to the prison system. The pipeline referred to in the title is this one, this channel that goes straight from the school benches to the prison cells. To save Omari and calm his rage, Nya will be ready for anything…
Dominique Morrisseau’s moving text is generally well served by Ahdri Zhina Mandiela’s staging, despite some clumsiness (including noisy and angry transitions that irritate more than they add to the subject) . However, we get lost in the many sibylline symbols that dot the staging: barcodes on the characters, gloves that go from performer to performer…
PHOTO ANTOINE SAITO, PROVIDED BY LA LICORNE
Video projections add a powerful breath to the staging.
The staging, which takes advantage of superb video projections, nevertheless offers each of the six performers a moment in the spotlight to show off their talent. Some of them manage to bring tears to our eyes or make us laugh (Anie Pascale is particularly ferocious in the role of a pugnacious teacher who swears excessively); others do less well.
On the evening of the premiere, we felt a few nervous actors: the gestures were telegraphed and the replies, said without relief or emotion. Worse, some passages were almost inaudible, the words being too chewed up. Nothing that can’t be fixed, that being said.
And nothing to contaminate the emotion conveyed by this show with a universal purpose. Mothers, no matter the color of their skin or their origins, know the anxiety that seizes their guts when they see their children face the world. And this is all the more true when this world is hostile to everything that our child can represent.
Pipeline
By Dominique Morisseau, directed by Ahdri Zhina Mandiela. With Jenny Brizard, Grégory Yves and Gloria Mampuya.
At the Unicorn Theater.Until May 8.