The transition from cinematographic works to the stage has been a popular phenomenon for several years, in Quebec as elsewhere. “It’s a vogue on Broadway, in London: All About Eve, Network… There have been many cult films transformed into shows”, confirms Emmanuel Reichenbach, who signs the adaptation of the film The great seductiontitled Sainte-Marie-la-Maudernefor the Gilles-Vigneault Theater in Saint-Jérôme.
The success of such projects — including his Untouchables in 2015 — brought legitimacy to this artistic process, he believes. “In the end, it’s the same art, dramatic art, whether on a screen or on stage. So I have the impression that it’s natural: these are works that have left their mark, strong stories. It’s normal to want to re-tell them, it’s always been done. The same stories have been told for 2000 years. Molière or Shakespeare wrote stories taken from earlier myths. So I think it’s intrinsic [au théâtre]. »
Made in 2003, The great seduction, by Ken Scott, has been a hit here — in addition to having been adapted in 35 countries, according to Reichenbach. Let us remember his irresistible story: the inhabitants of an island in the Lower North Shore, very isolated at sea, concoct an ingenious operation to keep a Montreal doctor at home. A condition sine qua non to attract the establishment of a factory, which would allow the islanders to find work and pride. “There are plenty of sensitive chords there: people who decide to stay in the region, who are attached to their part of the country, explains director Frédéric Blanchette. And the search for a doctor is even more relevant today than it could have been at the time. “Except that the shortage problem has spread to the province…
“Good theatre, for me, is that which describes the last moments of a world, of a way of life, of a reign: Chekhov, the Greeks, Shakespeare… he adds. And in The great seduction, there is that: they are unemployed, they live on, then there is this factory project. We see those last moments before something else is born. »
There are plenty of sensitive chords there: people who decide to stay in the regions, who are attached to their part of the country. And the search for a doctor is even more relevant today than it could have been at the time.
With the richness of its “fairly typical” characters, its misunderstandings, the film already had a theatricality, believes the duo. Without counting the amusing stratagems imagined by the villagers. To see how they kindly lead the doctor on a boat and if he believes in it is at the heart of the story. The kind of dramatic process that a Molière liked. “It must be said: it is a great writing that that of Ken Scott, launches his adapter. I analyzed it a lot and the deeper I went, the more I saw that it’s really well done, intelligent. There are elements, springs of the great classic comedy. A depth, a truth, a quest. And I think it was David Mamet who said that all plays are about a lie. A character doesn’t want to see a reality, he’s lying to himself or to someone else, it doesn’t matter: a lie is going to have to come out in the end. And here the main character experiences a 180 degree transformation. That’s the hallmark of good writing. »
Adapt
After Untouchables, What the hell have we done? and The Schpountzall at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert (The duty precisely meets the two creators in the rehearsal room of the establishment, where they rehearse), Emmanuel Reichenbach creates here his fourth transposition of a film.
“It’s still just as difficult, strangely. We already have a story, characters, it shouldn’t be so complicated. But it’s like unlearning. You have to backpedal and just extract the dramatic elements, take them off the screen and organize them on stage. You have to read the script at least 10 times without asking questions, like a pianist would do his scales, until he knows them to be able to improvise. Once you have enough of the script, you can start wondering how to jazz it up. »
To dive back into this adored work, which he knew by heart as he had seen it, “was to fall in love again” with it. Did he make a lot of changes to the narrative? “When a story is strong, it has a powerful emotional core,” Reichenbach replies.
Here, it is the quest of Germain, the mayor, who, pushed by his wife who threatens to leave the village of their ancestors, becomes the mastermind of the seduction operation. “Getting a doctor will change their lives. And it’s so strong, this quest — it’s a fundamental, deep theme — that there isn’t so much room to transform. But we reinterpret. The characters tell each other differently. »
A balance is struck between respect for the original work and the need to “disobey” it sometimes, so as not to be its prisoner. “It seems like it happens naturally. Once I’ve done my scales [le texte] is mine. I keep the best lines, but I add mine too. Which means that in a scene, we have all the good Ken Scott gags, I found 2-3 no worse ones and they added some in rehearsal. Finally, it makes strong scenes in tabarnouche! »
Distribution
To stage Sainte-Marie-la-Mauderne, Frédéric Blanchette, he refrained from reviewing the film. “I really wanted to start from what Emmanuel was going to do with it. And he quickly envisioned this microcosm in a place that takes off from realism. “For me, it was important for this island to become, in the theater, a little less documentary geographically, but more of a metaphor for today’s Quebec. » From where a distribution composing a more diversified portrait than in the cinema. Starting with Fayolle Jean Jr, actor that Blanchette had directed in the play In the field of love — “I love his presence” —, who embodies the cricket-loving doctor.
It was on hearing him say in an interview that he would like to play more in the theater that the director of the Théâtre Gilles-Vigneault, David Laferrière, thought of Michel Rivard for the role of Germain. Let’s say that the singer evokes a different temperament from that of the original interpreter of the character, Raymond Bouchard… “That’s what I liked, to go elsewhere, says the director. In fact, Germain is not a man who imposes physically, he is a skilful manipulator, very charming. And that, Michel has it completely. »
To camp the gruff Yvon, they managed to seduce Normand Brathwaite, absent, him, from the scenic game for decades. Tempted but “very nervous”, he would have taken weeks, even months, to think about it. “He came for lunch one afternoon and he said: ‘I have to do it, it’s too late. fun“”, reports Emmanuel Reichenbach. He and his colleague are full of praise for his charisma, his pleasure in rehearsal. And because these two performers make music, we are promised, “little scoop “, a scene from party or they will jamming…