Over the past twenty years, Christian Lapointe has produced nearly thirty productions without ever doing the same thing twice. From symbolism to minimalism, from William Butler Yeats to Mathieu Arsenault, from the short form to the marathon work, from the choral piece to the performance without any actor, the creator has always known how to reinvent himself, and this, well before the pandemic.
These days, by staging When we’ve tortured ourselves enough at the Prospero theatre, the artistic director of the Carte blanche company reconnects with Martin Crimp, a British author who for four decades has tackled the violence of contemporary Western societies with a lively cruelty enhanced by a biting humor at will. “At Crimp, explains Lapointe, there is no delay between thought and speech. As if the characters are constantly brainstorming, they think out loud and in the present. The playwright thus lets us hear, not to say see, the writing that is being done. »
Christian Lapointe signs each time, in addition to the staging, the Quebec translation of the plays of the British author. “I feel like I live in Crimp’s work,” he explains. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a master of thought, he’s one of my contemporaries, an artist with whom I have a dialogue, a writing with which I relate, towards which I have a form of ‘commitment. For ten years, I have also been working on his plays with young people in schools. His theater has become for me an ephemeral home with a cosmogony of characters that are familiar to me. »
After In the Republic of Happiness (2015) and The rest you know from the movies (2018), the director is now up against When we’ve tortured ourselves enougha piece created in London in 2019. Presented in co-production with the Groupe de la Veillée, Christian Lapointe’s show stars Céline Bonnier and Emmanuel Schwartz, but also Lise Castonguay and Laura Côté-Bilodeau, in a series of cruel transactions inspired by of Pamela or rewarded virtue by Samuel Richardson (1740), a British novel which is said to have paved the way for Dangerous Liaisons de Laclos (1782) and Justine or misfortunes virtue by Sadé (1791).
Caution
“Please note that this piece touches on many topics that may be offensive to some people. This warning, or “traumawarning,” appears on the Prospero website and will likely be reproduced in the evening’s program as well. “It’s a very hard piece, recognizes Lapointe. First of all, it manhandles the artists, it exposes them, it presents significant difficulties because it poses great questions about our time, because it deals with subjects that are terribly delicate. Then there is a game of mirrors, a way of reflecting the audience’s own reflection, a device which, in my opinion, is the foundation of theatre: showing the world through a magnifying glass. »
It is about a man who carries out a kidnapping and kidnapping in order to force a woman into marriage, in particular by offering her money. “It’s brutal, recognizes Lapointe, but much less than the society that is outside the theater. Understanding this violence on stage is what allows us to better flush it out in everyday life. That said, if people are afraid of getting hurt, they shouldn’t come. Not only do I understand this reaction, but I completely respect it. »
Variation on the theme of “amorous” sequestration – we think of Misery of Stephen King or to My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent — the play highlights the relationships of domination that persist in our fictions as in our contemporary societies (gender, race, class, etc.). “The strength of Crimp, believes Lapointe, is to expose the relationships of domination by carrying out reversals, reversals, a constant exchange of the roles of the executioner and the victim, of the man and the woman , of the boss and the employee, of the child and the adult… All this with the aim of showing eloquently where the normalization of the culture of abduction and rape in our societies comes from. »
Multiply the points of view
Contrary to 365 days, the film by Polish Barbara Bialowas which caused controversy in 2020 because of the way it depicts the kidnapping and rape of its main character, Crimp’s text does not just describe reality, it denounces, puts him on trial. “The Brit is scrutinizing his own point of view as a male author,” explains Lapointe. Unable to extricate himself from it, he brings it into play, into question. The key here lies in the language, in putting it into words. Writing, the subversive gesture of writing, occupies a crucial place in the play. »
In his eloquent “message from the director”, Christian Lapointe formulates some glaringly topical questions on this subject: “Can a white person make speak – choose the words for – a character from a minority seen? Can a heterosexual person — a TV screenwriter, for example — get homosexual characters to talk about? Can a gendered person make speak — write for — a non-gendered character? Can a male author – even today – make a female character speak? »
The duel between Céline Bonnier and Emmanuel Schwartz, two beasts of the stage who, in addition to having never worked with the man of the theatre, had never shared the same stage, Christian Lapointe chose to camp it on a set of movie theater. “It’s a way of marrying the metatheatrical nature of the work,” he explains. I wanted to introduce fiction into fiction, to deploy a hidden plot, to ensure that the abduction in question in the play finds an echo in the relationship that can be established between a director and an actress. »
A “playoff” which of course alludes to the abuses and attacks that have been committed and continue to be committed behind the scenes of cinema, television and theatre. “There is a lot of benevolence in these workplaces, specifies Lapointe, but there is also a violence that must be shown, that we must denounce, in short, a tyranny that no longer has its place. »