Cultural return | The return of large retailers

Pandemic obliges, the last two theatrical seasons have been rich in solos and intimate shows. The trend will be reversed this fall, when several theaters are offering large-scale plays bringing together a plethora of performers on stage.

Fifteen performers who share the boards here. Thirty there. Forty (!) elsewhere. Certainly, the management of the theaters have taken ambitious projects out of their boxes for the coming season. Simple coincidence or conscious gesture?

At Duceppe, the coming season is particularly generous, one might say, with no less than 88 actors and actresses who will parade on the main stage. (Already, for the only show-event A. Of them. Threeby Mani Soleymanlou, they will be 40 to share the stage.)

However, this is no coincidence, says David Laurin co-artistic director. “We celebrate our 50^e anniversary this year, and there was a desire to return to the company’s DNA, which is to offer projects with scope, but while remaining creative. We wanted to present shows with, each time, a dozen performers. »

So this is the room Mom, written by Nathalie Doummar, which will kick off the next season, with its cast of 14 performers, including 13 women.

“This play is inspired by my family, and inevitably, talking about my family imposes a large number of characters”, laughs the playwright of Egyptian origin. “This camera brings together four generations of women from the same Arab family who watch over the dying patriarch. For three days, these women will live confrontations, but without ever losing their humor and the love they have for each other. »

When writing this play — “the most important of [sa] life” — Nathalie Doummar feared she would not be able to find the ideal actresses in Quebec to slip into these multiple roles of Arab women torn between their Egyptian origins and their host community. The directors of Duceppe then offered to welcome interpreters from Tunisia, Lebanon and Algeria to the laboratory.

This is how the imposing cast was composed around Nathalie Doummar herself, who embodies (alternating with Sharon Ibgui) the role of Diane, “a divorced woman who has already had a romantic relationship with another woman and who is constantly torn between her need to please her family and the need to free herself from it. »

At the Trident de Québec, the season also got off to a flying start with Cabaret (and its 20 performers and musicians) followed byAlice, where 14 actors will play the role. Anne-Marie Olivier, who designed the 2022-2023 program before stepping down as artistic director, explains: “At Trident, we like it when there are lots of people on stage! It’s a party you can afford. In the performing arts, there is electricity that passes between the artists, and the more people involved, the greater this electricity. »

” Cabaret is a real party that we kept alive for two years. We couldn’t cancel a party, especially when it showcases all the virtuosity needed to sing and dance on stage, to claim loud and clear the right to be ourselves! For Alice, we are in the engineering theater. It’s different, but the number of artists makes it possible to create paintings and strong images. »

“There is something beautiful in seeing all these people on stage, especially after the two years we have just spent, she continues. We were all alone like rats in our hole! We realized that without others, we are very little and that it is the social bond that gives us energy again. »

Thirty performers, five plays, one show

Same story with Brigitte Haentjens. The director will present this spring at Usine C a river play entitled Romeadapted from Shakespeare’s five Roman plays: The Rape of Lucretius, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Titus Andronicus. A total of 30 actors and actresses take part in this somewhat crazy project.

“There is a great sense of victory for us to present this show, because it goes against everything that we have been predicted during the pandemic, including this need to reinvent ourselves through the virtual. Obviously, the theater got away with it! »

“Bringing together all these performers allows us to go to the very foundation of our art, which is to address the community through the community. The theatrical experience is always exceptional, because we are there together. However, strength in numbers adds to this feeling. »

” For Rome, I chose to mix long-time collaborators and younger ones with whom I have never worked. I wanted to surround myself with people of all ages and backgrounds, to represent the community in all its diversity. »

Brigitte Haentjens and Jean-Marc Dalpé, who is translating and adapting the five Shakespearian works, have been working on this project for three years. “I don’t just want to create a succession of pieces, but rather offer a show with a unity, a common thread. For me, it’s a particular challenge, because I’m used to rehearsing a lot before presenting a show. Here, I can’t do it as much as usual…”

The logistics of rehearsals are also a real headache, she says. “It is certain that there is pressure on the schedules, because of the working conditions of actors in Quebec… It requires a lot of commitment on the part of the performers. »

Statistics that continue to worry

But even the most committed can fall in battle, especially when epidemic waves follow one another. However, it is mathematical: the larger the distribution, the higher the risk that someone will contract COVID-19… “These large distributions come with an element of risk, admits David Laurin. We are aware that a new wave can hit us. »

It is for this reason that the Trident decided to hire substitute actors for the first two productions of the season. “They participate in rehearsals, learn the choreographies, says Anne-Marie Olivier. Maybe we’re doing all this in vain, but maybe it will also allow us to save three performances. This is our solution. To do nothing would be to prove that we learned nothing from what happened. »

momfrom September 7 to October 8, at Duceppe; Cabaretfrom September 13 to October 8, at the Trident; Romefrom April 5 to 23, at Usine C

Five other large trays

My name is Muhammad Ali

They are eight. Eight men from the Afro-descendant community of Montreal (accompanied by Nadine Jean) to come and tell their experiences as black actors, their fed up with racial segregation, their dreams and their aspirations. Carried by the voice of the great boxer Mohamed Ali, they go into battle. And the small Quat’Sous stage resounds under their feet.

From September 6 to 21 at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous

The Seven Branches of the Ōta River

This mythical work is back 25 years after its original creation. For seven hours, Robert Lepage invites us to follow the destiny of Hanako, survivor of the H-bomb. Ten actors and actresses make up the cast where East and West mingle. The performances scheduled at the TNM, canceled due to a fire, will hopefully be resumed.

At Le Diamant de Québec, September 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25; at Maurice-O’Bready Hall in Sherbrooke on October 2

Monsieur Molière’s novel

It takes people (12 performers and a musician!) to recreate on stage the effervescence that reigned at the time of Molière, Corneille and the Sun King. In this play directed by Lorraine Pintal, Molière’s life is told as seen by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. An expected meeting between two great feathers.

From November 8 to December 3 at the TNM

the maker

In this play by Honoré de Balzac, love and corruption intertwine according to each other’s tricks. Here, 10 performers take the stage by storm to tell the story full of twists and turns of a debt-ridden couple, the Mercadets. A text adapted by Gabrielle Chapdelaine in a staging by Alice Ronfard.

From January 25 to February 18 at the Denise-Pelletier Theater

The girls of the Saint-Lawrence

One evening, the St. Lawrence spits out seven unidentified corpses on its banks. Seven corpses that will change the lives of Élodie, Rose, Dora, Charlotte, Martin, Lili, Mathilde, Manon and Anne. This choral fresco written by Rébecca Déraspe (in collaboration with Annick Lefebvre) is directed by Alexia Bürger and brings together 10 performers.

From April 4 to 29 at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui