“A green, green, green plant”: The plant revolt

Last summer, Jean-Philippe Lehoux traveled through Montreal’s green spaces, with the baseball piece Fake ball, which he had the idea of. A “tremendous” adventure – “not a week goes by without people talking to me about it, it’s crazy,” he says – which has succeeded in attracting an audience to the stadiums that does not usually go to theaters.

One might think that this season, with a first text created at the Petit Théâtre du Nord, in Boisbriand, the playwright would return to a more conventional theatrical form. But A green, green, green plant explores a dimension rarely embodied on stage: the plant kingdom.

A summer comedy which germinated thanks to the reading of a scientific work on plants, by his great accomplice, the director Charles Dauphinais – who contributed to the writing process. The author of How I became a tourist and of Napoleon travels greatly appreciates the link established between theater and the human sciences. “I like to take hold of philosophy, political or sociological thoughts, but to try to make [ces idées] more digestible perhaps, more fun, explains Jean-Philippe Lehoux. It’s still entertainment. And so much the better if there are thoughts that arise. » The playwright believes in any case that during the hot season, contrary to popular belief, spectators are more mentally available. “Summer is a space that we should invest more in theater. There is room to do whatever you want. »

At the creative duo ofA green, green, green plant, the trigger came from an observation in a book by Stefano Mancuso, a renowned Italian botanist. “He noted that in the Bible, Noah did not take plants on his ark. Which is nonsense. It’s still strange that one of the greatest founding myths of the West is based on the presumption that we can do without plants. » How could we recreate life on Earth after the flood, without these photosynthesis producers?

For Jean-Philippe Lehoux, this anecdote proves that humans have “for a very long time perceived plants as accessories, even though they are extraordinarily vital: the majority of the biomass on Earth is made up of plants”. A vision that feeds our vanity, our claim to be “at the top of the pyramid, when that is completely false. And that became our driving force for writing, because we didn’t want to make an educational show about plants.” The piece is based on the relationship that human beings cultivate with them: “This vanity which, in my opinion, is a cousin of idiocy. The more we take ourselves for others, the more stupid we become, because we get into trouble, we say completely absurd things. »

He himself, he noted, generally maintains “a fairly indifferent relationship to plants. However, I am the son of a biologist, nature has always been very present in our home! » But this relationship has evolved since he has documented this fascinating world.

Small green organisms

Borrowing from various genres (science fiction, B-movie horror), A green, green, green plant is based on an apocalyptic premise: plants begin to go on strike for photosynthesis on our planet, threatening the oxygen level in the atmosphere. Some then try to establish contact with these small green organisms to find out their intentions.

But it’s not easy to communicate with what remains a mystery… “Obviously, all that the plant opposes to them is silence,” says Jean-Philippe Lehoux. For us, humans who try to understand things, this silence is violent. And that’s why we thought it was funny to make plants a threat, why we chose the B-movie angle, suspense. It’s easy to create a threat with not much: you put a green plant on stage, with slightly tense music and a human being looking at it with apprehension. And immediately, we interpret, we invent intentions for them. »

Conceived as a series of variations on the initial theme, the presumptuous relationship between humans and nature, this fragmented comedy sails between a few groups of characters. We travel from an American laboratory to a global seed reserve, passing through the tribulations of a road trip family. “The universes resonate with each other, but do not respond directly,” explains the author. It’s like a sketch play, but with a common core – no pun intended. We refined the dramaturgy so that there was a story. The fact remains that each of the four or five frames coexisting in the show has its own colors. And it’s especially the designers — because we have five young designers, it’s pretty phenomenal — who are having a lot of fun with it. » The show also plays with the codes of representation; we say no more…

Environmental issue

During the writing, the creators were led to define what distinguishes the human being. Beyond the obvious traits (being capable of conceptual thinking, having a big brain, humor and a chin), they understood that “what is really at the heart of our humanity, deep down”, is is the sharing of common cultural references. Especially from popular culture. “The theme of the film Jaws, for example, is recognized by everyone. And it’s quite worrying, in a sense, that ultimately, we mainly use our intelligence to construct these referents. If we were to look deep into our human brain, we would truly be bathed in clichés. We make fun of it a little in the show. »

Concerning the importance of our relationship with nature, Jean-Philippe Lehoux has the impression that it is not so much consciousness that we lack. “I think we lack the cognitive tools to truly be part of nature. We have extracted ourselves so much from this nature to create a culture – which is correct, it is part of our intelligence. But we are so far away that we no longer know how to navigate in this world. »

Of course, it is now impossible not to think about the climate crisis. According to the author, this question is present in the piece, but implicitly. “We didn’t want to deal with it directly, so we go through a big metaphor, which illustrates our inability to react quickly to the changes that are coming. »

But there is also there, casually, a celebration of the resilience of plants. “We know that we will disappear one day, we even see it with artificial intelligence, which risks overtaking us very soon. But life will go on. Plants are as evolved as us, even in terms of intelligence. This is what botanists tell us [démontrent]. And I still find it reassuring to know that there will be intelligent life on Earth, even if it is notHomo sapiens sapiens. It will continue, despite everything. It’s not our form of intelligence, but there is one that is just as beautiful and just as strong — maybe even more so. So why not have the humility to recognize it? »

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