On June 24, when the explosive decision of the American Supreme Court annulled the judgment Roe v. wade, the two creators of the Théâtre de l’Affamée were in a New York café and had just found the end of their text exploring the debate around abortion. Unbelievable timing, which prompted them to say to themselves: our play “is no longer a dystopia. It is an alarm”.
They had been working on this subject for four years already. “The rise of the right gave us some hints that there might be a pullback; it’s been going on for years in the United States, ”explains Marie-Ève Milot. And the directors of the feminist company wanted to recall the history of abortion in Quebec, which they say is very little known. By shining the spotlight elsewhere than on the great figure of Dr. Henry Morgentaler. “Even if it is very important, we wanted to talk about women, who also worked underground to give access to abortion to our mothers and grandmothers. »
Based on research and expert consultation, Clandestines is modeled on the real history of this medical act decriminalized here only in 1988, “but inspired by the current political context”. The authors of Ordinary Guerrilla have chosen to make it a dystopia, set in the very near future, in 2025, since “everything can change terribly quickly”, says Milot. “We wanted to demonstrate the fragility of the right to abortion here, explains Marie-Claude St-Laurent. With what happened in the United States, it became extremely concrete. It could happen here! There is no law that currently protects abortion in Canada. “There is a legal void.
They insist: the threat does not just lie in wait for our neighbors to the south, recalling that anti-choice Canadian MPs continue to table bills. “Also, anti-abortion groups have changed a lot in recent years,” continues the author and actress. They are getting younger, they are much more politicized. There are perhaps fewer religious groups here. But there are more and more young politicians claiming to be anti-choice. “I find that we have the unfortunate tendency to take our rights for granted, adds his accomplice. And I think it reassures us to tell ourselves that it can’t happen here. She also recalls that even this right is currently “difficult to access” in several regions outside the major centers.
Hence the importance for them that abortion be an absolute right, without any conditions. “The idea of anti-abortion groups is to quietly carve up the law,” says Marie-Claude St-Laurent. The conditions, that’s how we push it back: by eating it away, bite by bite. For example, third trimester abortions represent less than 1% [du total]. So what would it change if we put a limit? In fact, once the limit exists, it is much easier to restrict, and further restrict the right. That’s what we wanted to show in the play: all these strategies, which are very subtle and skilful. »
It is also because these third-trimester abortions cause “a great deal of discomfort, unease and doubt” that it would be easy to infiltrate this breach, notes Marie-Ève Milot. “Quickly, when we open this subject of [l’avortement] without any conditions, there are many pitfalls and taboos. A person who claims to be pro-choice, all of a sudden [va faire] : Yes, but. »
“In these conversations, when we go to play in the areas that cause friction, we realize that there are a lot of anti-abortion prejudices that are part of the popular discourse, without us realizing it. , adds Marie-Claude St-Laurent. Like the level of risk of abortions. While there are more risks in giving birth than in having an abortion! Or claiming that a termination of pregnancy necessarily arouses guilt or sadness in the woman who resorts to it.
“We play with these limits in the play. Even if they present themselves as being pro-choice or anti-choice, each character will, at some point, be placed before their own limits, their own prejudices. We are going to play in these gray areas, which are inside us, not just on the legislative or political level. That’s really what interested us in the play. »
The duo, who have collected an astonishing number of secrets about clandestine abortions experienced by mothers, aunts and never told, note that there is still a great taboo surrounding this procedure. “I think it raises all kinds of questions about motherhood, non-motherhood,” the actress adds.
Thriller
Clandestines is encamped in a world that resembles ours now. Except that a law was passed there claiming to make abortions safer. The tense story first plunges us into the heart of clandestine procedures, surrounded by a whole secret protocol, performed by a midwife and a very pregnant doctor – characters inspired by real figures. It will be discovered that an anti-choice network tries to question the status of the fetus.
The plot follows several characters (a young woman determined to end her pregnancy despite the obstacles, various anti-choice activists, including a politician), who will intersect to paint an “intimate, political and judicial portrait of the history of abortion”, summarizes Marie-Claude St-Laurent.
The idea of anti-abortion groups is to quietly carve up the law. The conditions, that’s how we push it back: by eating it away, bite by bite.
And the play takes the form of a thriller, very assumed. “We are particularly proud of this show, because this time we found a way to campaign by fully embracing fiction,” says the interpreter. We follow complex characters who surprise us, there is action. Through that, we expose committed ideas, yes, but the fact remains that ultimately, it’s an intrigue. “Which they wrote like those TV series whose episodes you devour “because you can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen. This is what we try to recreate in the theater”.
By creating the play at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, they are aware of addressing people who, “probably, in a large majority, present themselves as being pro-choice. We want to address precisely this public which, I think, will be surprised to recognize certain behaviors, certain reflections which can come from prejudices conveyed by anti-choice groups ”. And therefore “to come and shake up your convictions”, adds Marie-Ève Milot, who signs the staging.
It is this mirror of inner fragility in the face of abortion that they wish to hold out to him, continues his sidekick. “And we, we lived it by crossing the room, by reflecting and with our interlocutors and interlocutors. We experienced it, friction, too! When we start digging into that question, giving faces, stories, making it complex, because it necessarily is, we realize that it’s fragile. The final line of the piece captures their message: “We can’t rest.”