By adapting Virginie Despentes’ best-selling novel for the stage, director Angela Konrad signs a jubilant, corrosive and abundant show that proves to those who still doubted the singular strength of her voice. And which closes the theatrical season in Montreal with fireworks.
Posted at 10:18 a.m.
Built on the still smoldering ashes of rock culture, the play recounts the infernal descent of Vernon Subutex, a former record store owner who finds himself on the street after several bad twists of fate. Repeated bereavements, the subprime financial crisis and the dematerialization of music have forced him to lock up his shop, which has long been the epicenter of rock in Paris.
All he has left are old comrades from a bygone era, but to which he clings like the castaway that he is. To enjoy a bed, a hot meal, sometimes a fuck or a line of coke, Vernon will reconnect with one then with the other. But friends from before have changed and rarely for the better…
In the role of the fallen record store, David Boutin delivers a colossal performance. Dirty hair, haggard eyes, rotten teeth, he appears to us already worn out, withered. For three hours, he wanders in a perpetual state of survival. Only a lively, but quickly “murdered” love for a trans woman (Violette Chauveau, all in sensuality) will bring a little light to her eyes.
Photo Daniel Huot, provided by Usine C
In the role of the fallen record store, David Boutin delivers a colossal performance.
In his wanderings, Vernon will cross paths with a gallery of characters just as flayed as him, despite the accumulated money and the gentrification of some. In the role of Sylvie, a mistress as demanding as she is capricious, Anne-Marie Cadieux steals the show. With her very physical acting, her cries of tears and her bloodcurdling laughter, she is undoubtedly the most overexcited of this high-flying cast.
Dominique Quesnel, for her part, embodies, and with all the unbridled energy that we know from her, La Hyène, a woman capable of demolishing the best reputations by flooding social networks with gall. She is also Olga, a touching homeless man who mourns (with us) the death of her dog. Paul Ahmarani as a failed screenwriter and Philippe Cousineau, as a producer unable to bear the success of others and then as an unrepentant female drummer, also deliver solid performances.
To make us travel from one universe to another, Angela Konrad has chosen to multiply the video projections (colossal work by Alexandre Desjardins) on a large white wall at the back of the stage. It is also on this wall that she will occasionally project excerpts from the novel by Virginie Despentes. A process which she will not abuse, but which demonstrates to what extent the director has decided to stay as close as possible to the original text. By adapting the first volume of this triptych, Angela Konrad chose to stay true to the characters, highlighting all their contradictions without ever ceasing to love them. Even the worst villains with the most shocking speeches remain endearing here, because they remain deeply human.
And this humanity unfolds on a heterogeneous soundtrack, but always on point. Between a punk song and a pop success, between Nina Hagen and Adèle, music becomes a character in its own right. It is she who marks the differences between the social classes, the ideologies and the states of mind of each one.
She is also the one who accompanies us long after the end of this punchy show, where we laugh a lot, but always with a lump in our stomachs. It remains to be hoped that the eight performances scheduled at Usine C will not be the only opportunities to see this immense piece. We also cross our fingers that the entire trilogy will one day be presented. Angela Konrad is already working on it. And that’s great news.
Vernon Subutex 1
Based on a text by Virginie Despentes. Adapted and directed by Angela Konrad. With David Boutin, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Dominique Quesnel and six other performers.
At Factory CUntil June 22