Unless I’m mistaken, the last time a Montreal theater produced An enemy of the people dates back to 1990, when François Barbeau staged the play by the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen at Duceppe. The wait will certainly have been worth it since, these days, at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, the work is taken head on and in an enlightening way by the author-translator Sarah Berthiaume and the director Édith Patenaude.
Cleverly combined with the present, and naturally endowed with a female main character, the play is set in a world that is very similar to ours. The partition may be 140 years old, but the forces it brings together are those that continue to operate in the Western municipalities of the 21st century.and century. The daily lives of the protagonists may be less digital, but the challenges facing their democracy also affect ours, and the terrible ideological drifts that threaten them threaten us just as much.
For the author‑translator and the director, who are both entering the TNM, it was therefore not a question of demonstrating the (undeniable) topicality of the play, but rather of adopting a point of view , to carry out a real reading of the work, an understanding that is embodied by aesthetic choices that are as audacious as they are coherent. Thus, the language, which speaks to today’s Quebec without turning away from 19th-century Norwayand century, responds perfectly to the scenic proposal, a joyful vaudeville, with deliciously kitsch exteriors, whose terrible gears are gradually revealed.
To tell the truth, Édith Patenaude’s staging is a series of twists and turns. Firstly because it marries the smallest twists and turns of the action, but above all because it highlights the great theatricality of the work, that it gives it to be seen and heard, that it exacerbates it same. From the backstage, which is visible from the room, to the total abolition of the fourth wall, through the hilarious changes of scenery between acts and a few surprises that we leave you the pleasure of discovering, everything is deployed for us remember that we are at the theatre.
The entire cast does well, but three members shine brighter. First, Ève Landry, who embodies the main role with all the ardor and determination for which she is known. Then Steve Gagnon, irresistible as Hovstad, an editor whose highly malleable work ethic sends shivers down your spine. The actor, who seems to be mounted on a spring, makes his character as credible in idealism as in corruption. And finally Dominique Pétin, hilarious in the role of Aslaksen, printer, president of the Chamber of Commerce and zealous member… of the Moderates’ Club!
If the world is a stage, the stage is certainly a pitiless representation of our living together. Here, municipal politics is an increasingly grotesque comedy, then an increasingly unbearable drama, and finally a pure tragedy where the last words of Katrine Stockmann resonate in a very disturbing way: “The wolves can no longer do anything against me . No. Now I am the strongest woman in the world. Because the strongest woman in the world is the one who is the most alone. »