For next season, the management of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (CTD’A) is offering a program designed as a game of mirrors where generations challenge and respond to each other.
A total of nine shows and three events are presented in the two halls of the theater on rue Saint-Denis. “With all the upheavals that we have experienced in recent years, I wanted to shift the DNA of theater a little,” explains the artistic director of the CTD’A, Sylvain Bélanger. “Our identity has always been to focus on who we are, to allow us to observe ourselves, to define ourselves. I wanted to focus this time on what we become in this world where it is difficult to take a step back. Artists attempt to do this; they are thirsty to talk about the choices we are making. »
“I want to be part of the current movement, without being afraid of being pushed around. The proposals are very varied on the aesthetic, formal and dramaturgical level. The artists adopt delinquent, rebellious, proud and undisciplined postures. They had to guts ! », continues Sylvain Bélanger.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Some leading figures of the new theatrical season of the CTD’A (in order, starting from the back): Jacques Girard, the director of the CTD’A Sylvain Bélanger, Tatiana Zinga Batao, Sylvie Drapeau, Gabrielle Lessard, Leila Donabelle Kaze, Cha Raoutenfeld and Guillaume Chapnick.
In the Michelle-Rossignol room, the season opens with Mutants, which is the extension of a major project led by Sophie Cadieux and Sylvain Bélanger 12 years ago, a project that led to a show. “We wanted to find Generation X, which is mine, 12 years later,” says the one who co-signs the text and direction here.
Follows, in November, the play Nzinga, worn by Tatiana Zinga Botao. ” Nzinga, it is the proud posture of the immigration of a person who chose Quebec. Tatiana shares the name of a 17th century Congolese queene century, a great forgotten figure in history. Here, the oral tradition is really put forward,” says the artistic director.
Another mythical figure – from visual art, this time – whom many have forgotten and who is invited to CDT’A in February: the American artist Judy Chicago, who gives her name to the show. Playwright Gabrielle Lessard was inspired by this woman who fought many battles against institutions run by men.
“Judy Chicago was snubbed by galleries, museums. With her very punchy, very direct dialogues, Gabrielle decided to infuse the personality of the artist into the destiny of her characters. As for Nzinga, the piece allows us to be part of a historical trajectory, to rely on the past to build ourselves. This verticality is very rich,” says Sylvain Bélanger.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The artistic director of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, Sylvain Bélanger
In Getting old, which closes the season in the main room, it is the language of Larry Tremblay which deploys all its richness, as he gives voice to people of his generation, who have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. “We discover six aging characters who have a lot of repartee, a lot of tenderness, but who are gradually affected by cognitive loss. Larry and director Claude Poissant breathe a lot of candor and shamelessness into the play. »
Conversation from one room to another
In the small Jean-Claude-Germain room, located upstairs, five pieces are planned, each or almost corresponding to the one that will be played at the same time in the main room. It will first be a question here of the (unfulfilled?) promises of the theater with Equinoxa play by Hugo Fréjabise carried by young actors leaving school.
Will follow the resumption of the text of science fiction Seeker, by Marie-Claude Verdier, winner of the Michel-Tremblay prize. In January, non-binary artist Cha Raoutenfeld offers Papecaa play on the identity fight on the affirmation of gender.
While in the large room, the elders of Larry Tremblay will tell each other, the play Shevchenko will take place in the Salle Jean-Claude-Germain. Here, three brothers are forced to take care of their father, a man of Ukrainian descent who suffers from a degenerative disease. A text by Guillaume Chapnick.
The word of the end will however return to the four protagonists of the play get excited by Stephie Mazunya. “The vernacular is exploding here,” says Sylvain Bélanger. It is a mixed language from the neighborhoods of Montreal. A language that moves! »
Note that the CTD’A will also present during its season the river reading of the work of Michel Tremblay, The crossing of the centuryin addition to resuming the show Piss standing up without lifting her skirt by Olivier Arteau. A carte blanche was also given to the director Alix Dufresne who will bring together a dozen artists for the project. today tonight.