Bilingual co-creation of two theatres, Cyclorama is an unusual project in more ways than one. A “documentary comedy” in three parts that combines history and walking spectacle. The large-scale adventure conceived by Laurence Dauphinais has a meritorious aim: to examine the gap between two theatrical communities that share a city without seeing each other, or even, often, knowing each other.
The first stage, at the Centaur, against the backdrop of a library, announces the program: we are here to receive an education. And, indeed, even the theater lover will be able to learn several facts or anecdotes of interest in this show which, ultimately, draws a rich portrait of the relations between the two solitudes through the history of their theaters. From the examination of the collective narratives specific to each of the linguistic communities emerges a clash of interpretations. The academic experts responsible for exposing this story – with the help of video archives – Erin Hurley and Alexandre Cadieux (a former colleague), may not be actors, they lack neither presence nor ease on stage. The show is also infused with a lot of humor – evoking, for example, the prejudices existing on both sides about the theater of the other.
The author and director has gone to great lengths to tone down the educational nature of her project – which nevertheless remains inevitable. The subject, the linguistic divide, is thus embodied through the two duos present on stage, to whom the text plays a dynamic of antagonism. The theme also goes through the personal story. According to, one would say, a logic of linguistic exchange: the initial portion, at the English theater, emphasizes the biography of Laurence Dauphinais, while the last part, at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (CTdA) , focuses on the story of actor Antoine Yared, a French-speaking man who studied and then made a career in English, notably at the Stratford Festival.
Discover the theater of the other
The history lesson continues during a bus trip, probably the weakest point of the journey, despite sound clips from playwrights David Fennario or Marco Micone (as well as… Celine Dion?). Necessary to carry spectators from one theater to another, this route is used to talk about Saint-Laurent Boulevard, a long demarcation and meeting point between Anglophones and Francophones in Montreal. But the simple audio recording and what is proposed to see, in particular the National Monument (on which certain previous information is repeated), are hardly enough to hold the attention during a journey which can stretch in traffic. It must be said that this out-of-the-ordinary production requires logistics that requires a certain patience from the viewer.
At the CTdA, historians are relegated to the overhead projector while the two actors take center stage. And even if Dauphinais and Yared are convincing, the staging of their conflicting relationship, illustrating the relationship sown with incomprehension and sometimes tense between the two linguistic communities, sometimes seems a little too basic or artificial for my taste. But, in the end, it is to the theater that this humorous-didactic production gives the last word. By a stage (superbly lit) where we will symbolize the hoped-for rapprochement that the show calls for.
Despite its imperfections, Cyclorama remains a unique adventure. Something like a bet, which we will see later if it bears fruit. Hearing, at the end of the performance, an English-speaking spectator questioning the CTdA employee about the institution on rue Saint-Denis proves in any case that the production will encourage some Montrealers to discover the theater of the other…