It is a very joyful odyssey that Joséphine Verne undertakes to join, on the other side of the Atlantic, her cousin Jules, with whom she corresponds. Emulator of Phileas Fogg, the heroine imagined by the author Philippe Robert, will bet she can get there in 30 days. However, the stakes are high: if the adventurer fails, she and her parent will agree to submit to the destinies that have been mapped out for them by their family: that of queen of the home for one, that of lawyer for the other. It is therefore the road to emancipation that Joséphine takes, in the company of her sidekick Jacquot, in this play offered to young and old from 10 years old.
In order to meet this challenge, she will have to, among other things, collect the bubbling magma in the heart of Mount Royal, take ink from a giant octopus and propel herself in a hollow cannonball towards the Moon. We will not fail to see so many references to the books of the famous French writer of the 19the century. But it is not only the work of Jules Verne which fuels the hazards of this perilous journey, because its first stages take place in Quebec territory. Rocher Percé, the Cap-des-Rosiers lighthouse and the Magdalen Islands are invested with a whole new mythology.
However, not all the adventures punctuating this adventure story, constructed according to the proven – not to say agreed – narrative pattern of the quest, are of the same interest. For example, the meeting with mysterious castaways from Madelin seems to drag on unduly and the duo of clowns plaguing the Moon hardly adds to the progression of the story. On the other hand, other episodes, such as the speleological exploration of Mount Royal and the hot air balloon flights, prove to be as epic as they are thrilling.
Adding colossally to their charm, it must be said, is the fabulous scenography designed by Francis Farley-Lemieux, skillfully highlighted by Kyllian Mahieu. The stage of the Fred-Barry room is almost entirely inhabited by a circular structure made of two concentric staircases, of which the central one can pivot and, thus, reveal the shelves of a library. At the top, two lampposts sometimes evoke the end of a quay, sometimes the bow of a ship.
In the same way, the costumes – especially those of the main characters: a bronze tunic for Jacquot, bloomers and a jacket with gold-embroidered lapels for Joséphine – display the refinement to which the Théâtre Advienne que peut has accustomed the public, although that they are not, this time, the fruit of the work of its artistic co-director Sarah Balleux, but rather that of Jonathan Beaudoin. All these elements, as well as the soundtrack by Sébastien Watty Langlois, are very skillfully orchestrated by Frédéric Bélanger, a past master in the art of summoning the marvelous.
This enchantment is supported by the communicative ardor displayed by Clara Prévost portraying the explorer, by the enthusiasm which unstoppably wins over the timid Jacquot, played with finesse by David Noël, and by the striking versatility of Yann Aspirot, who combines the roles secondary, supported in this by Milène Leclerc. This valiant quartet performs with enthusiasm a text where historical, cultural and literary references abound without being weighed down. We will also like that key elements of the show literally come from books. The boat that will cross the ocean, for example, appears when opening the cover of a book. Jules&Josephine is without a doubt an ode to the imagination, to the audacity to invent oneself and to dream of the world differently.