Straddling east and west, domination and freedom, masculine and feminine, high and low, Hedwig is a non-binary character of mythological proportions. The journey that will take him from East Berlin to Junction City, Kansas, is filled with highlights, incredible adventures that are told to us in song from the stage of an intimate rock concert. Created in 1998 by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, adapted to the cinema in 2001, then presented around the world and finally consecrated on Broadway in 2014, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is certainly one of the most singular works that American musical comedy has given us.
A quarter of a century after its creation, the quasi-monologue comes to us translated and directed by René Richard Cyr: Hedwig and the raging thumb. In the title role, that of an individual who has been raped, mutilated and forced into a gender reassignment, we find an actor up to the challenge: Benoit McGinnis, who carries out his heavy task with all the and the sensibility that we know about him. In the clothes of Yitzhak, the husband of Hedwig, a Jewish drag queen of Croatian origin, Elisabeth Gauthier Pelletier is funny and very vocal. The two performers are supported by four musicians.
From the first minutes of the show, we understand that our Hedwig has something very Montreal about it. Firstly because, in an excess of irreverence, she dares to attack without restraint a national pride on which fate is already hounding, that is to say Celine Dion, but also because her setbacks, particularly in love, are reminiscent of those of the great heroines of Michel Tremblay, from Pierrette to Carmen via Hosanna. After all, René Richard Cyr is a specialist in the field.
The missing part
During “The Origin of Love”, one of the most beautiful moments of the show, the magnificent illustrations by Liliane Jodoin appear in the background. According to Aristophanes, in Feast According to Plato, there were once three types of human beings: the children of the Sun (two men tied), the children of the Earth (two women tied) and the children of the Moon (a woman and a man tied), until until a furious god splits these beings in two and condemns them to a life of wandering in search of their half. It is on this legend that the quest for identity of the main character is based. Thus, through salacious jokes and outbursts of anger, Hedwig manifests her deep desire to reconnect with her true nature, her missing part. In short, to finally appear whole.
From the costumes to the set, from the arrangements to the lighting, from the adaptation to the interpretation, the production offers a job well done, but remains a little too clean. The punk spirit remains to be fully embraced. A few pacing issues need to be fixed. Hedwig’s moult could be expressed more eloquently. Fortunately, the show still has around thirty performances ahead of it.