After working at the heart of the Cirque Éloize production Between sky and sea, Madelinot storyteller Cédric Landry invites the public not only to another “trip to the Islands”, but more particularly to wanderings in the village where he grew up, L’Étang-du-Nord. The itinerary, he says, includes stops at the general store, the quay and of course the jewel of built heritage which gives its title to this second solo creation, the Borgot lighthouse. This “gaudy mist,” as the artist calls it, indicates to navigators the presence of the Magdalen Islands for more than 150 years. A benefit performance of the show was also offered at the village church last summer, with a view to financing the restoration work required on the monument.
Light is the common thread of The light of Borgot. “I think it’s everywhere. Despite all our faults, and even in characters who have dark sides, I tell myself that there is always a little bit of light shining somewhere. There is always a crack that forms and allows it to pass through. We just have to give him the chance to shine. »
This show, created in 2021 but only then presented, due to the pandemic, in Landry’s home region and in Gaspésie, has a second version, in which Hugo Bourque collaborated on the scriptwriting, as well as Michel-Maxime Legault and Michel Poirier directing. The team sought to accentuate certain aspects of the story, but while being careful “not to fall too far into theatricality”. Because the absence of a fourth wall characteristic of the art of storytelling cannot be compromised. “It’s really a game of ping-pong with the audience, who sigh, laugh, respond. Like it used to happen in kitchens. That’s what I find beautiful. »
Despite all our faults, and even in characters who have dark sides, I tell myself that there is always a little bit of light shining somewhere.
The one who says he learns over time to “inhabit the silences, to let them live”, so that the spectators can fully appreciate what is being told to them, also taking from this discipline the freedom it gives him, that of “playing with the material” over the course of the representations, so that “the story becomes better, it matures by dint of being told”. After having signed a few plays, including Raphael to Ti-Jean And Ti-Marc (the big one!) which were produced at the Bic theater, as well as the documentary miniseries Captains of the Shallowsit seemed undeniable to him that the world of the story would be the one where he would flourish to his fullest extent.
It is this ease that he feels there which explains, according to him, that we cannot help but notice that his accent appears more pronounced in a performance than in an interview. Like when he returns to his archipelago or talks on the phone with a member of his family, he explains. “Wherever I am in the world, when I go on stage to tell stories, I am at home. I return to the Magdalen Islands and find who I am. »
A saving nostalgia
The islands that the storyteller portrays in The light of Borgot are those of his childhood. “I idealized them,” he says, “I somehow froze them in time. » Which allows him to “reaffirm our traditions, so that they remain alive”. Are these traditions, or even the cultural specificity of the region, threatened by the tidal wave of tourism that has been sweeping there in recent years? Landry first responds with a meaningful smile. We sense the thorny question. “I think that what makes the Islands beautiful are the people of the Islands, welcoming people… and we must continue to be so,” he affirms after a moment of reflection, conceding that he nevertheless notes, in the current context, a situation of “fragility”. “When people started buying houses in the Islands, it created an imbalance. Young people here, who have lower salaries, can no longer buy them. We are losing ground… not to mention the problem of erosion. By losing territory (literally and figuratively), we lose a little of our identity. Our language and our history are becoming more and more extinct because it is becoming a tourist place. I consider myself a guardian of this history. »
It is therefore invested with a mission that he puts on his storytelling boots – the same ones since the start of his career – to perpetuate his island culture and share it here and elsewhere. His tour will take him, after Quebec, to Switzerland, France and Belgium. Wherever he is, he always remains on the lookout for the ideal alchemical dosage between reality, the marvelous and laughter, without ever putting too much emphasis on this last component. “Sometimes the line is thin between comedians and storytellers,” says the man who uses comic springs as valves rather than engines. His next show, which he is already starting to think about, will pursue a goal similar to that of The light of Borgot, but will highlight Acadian history and traditions, a heritage to which Cédric Landry also claims. In his mouth, Acadian notes intertwine with Madelinian sounds, which he cherishes. “Our language is a kind of sea shanty. It’s beautiful. »