A first improvisation festival is about to see the light of day in Quebec, forty-five years after the delivery of a first improv match by the Experimental Theater of Montreal. The moment of a weekend, the event offers a showcase to exhibit the richness of a national art dapper with vitality and which continues to evolve, half a century after its creation, outside the tapes, without text nor fillet.
The festival will bring together the modern and the ancient, the venerable roots as much as the freshest buds. There will be a clash at the top between the Ligue Nationale d’Improvisation and the Ligue d’Improvisation de Québec, two institutions still faithful to the improvisation modeled on hockey conceived by Robert Gravel and Yvon Leduc. There will also be new cuttings who have fun getting out of the straitjacket to invent new concepts.
At the helm of the festival, Dominic Lapointe is used to navigating new genre improvisation. Co-founder, in 2012, of the Punch Club with Ogden Ridjanovic, the disheveled Robert Nelson of Alaclair Ensemble, and Karl-Alexandre Jahjah, he still produces this “street improv” show without rules, more ” bad-ass and inspired more by wrestling than hockey, in his words.
Friday evening, a championship match will also take place in the Punch Club ring, featuring stars of the third string such as comedians Arnaud Soly and Virginie Fortin.
The company La Chaumière, a troupe from Quebec, will have launched the festivities beforehand with Almost Broadway, a fully improvised 75-minute musical. The following evening, the productions of L’Instable will present, for their part, a show with jazzy accents: like a musical trio, three improvisers will link the stories and the characters, without caucus or fixed duration.
“The only time they can change the story is when one of the improvisers is going to do a countdown: one, two, three, specifies Dominic Lapointe. They will then launch another improvisation immediately. It’s really a formula inspired by a jazz trio in a small bar, in the evening. »
Sunday afternoon, the Carré d’as will invite the public to improv casino. “It’s a croupier who directs the improvisations”, indicates the artistic director of the festival about this formula where two teams of two compete around as many themes. Each bets on the duration of the improvisations and has a joker capable of imposing a constraint on the other during the game.
Then, Les Architectes, a troupe from Quebec, will only play on themes proposed by the public, without consultation or team. And, at the end of the festival, the Club d’impro will present a performance inspired by the popular British show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. The game, led by a host in collusion with the public, aims to put four improvisers in trouble to have fun watching them untangle themselves.
“He tries to confuse them as much as possible,” says the artistic director. To the delight of the public, who sees them trying to get out of trouble. »
Robert Lepage as a guest
Improvisation and its constant reinvention testify to a living art, in the eyes of Dominic Lapointe.
“When classical improvisation was created in 1977, it was madness, everyone wanted to play this game, says the artistic director of the festival. At some point, however, you feel like pushing spontaneous creation further, leaving competition aside to get carried away in longer stories, where players have more time to flesh out their narrative and their characters. . »
The classic games will however have a good share on Saturday. Throughout the day, the stars of high school, CEGEP and university will compete, an opportunity to admire the know-how of a succession that can now develop in all regions of Quebec, so Improvisation has permeated the education network.
“The festival is as much for fanatics as for Muggles, likes to repeat Dominic Lapointe. That is to say that it is aimed at insiders as much as at people who do not gravitate in the middle of improv and who want to offer themselves the opportunity to discover new shows. »
In addition to the performances, the festival will also offer the opportunity to reflect on the importance of improvisation for a great creator from Quebec: Robert Lepage. The latter will participate in a podcast recorded in front of an audience on Sunday morning.
“Robert Lepage is an early improviser. Even if he no longer plays today, he uses improvisation as a stimulus for writing and creation, underlines Dominic Lapointe. The conversation will allow you to discover how the discipline influenced his work. »
Quebec, the cradle of improvisation, gave birth to a game that now shines in Europe and America. It will however have been necessary to wait almost half a century before the native land of improvisation devotes a first festival to it.
“It was time, concludes Dominic Lapointe. Strangely, in French-speaking Europe, several improv companies manage to make very beautiful festivals. There are a lot more people out there who also manage to make a living from improv. Here in Quebec, comedians or actors do it, even if after 10, 15 or 20 years, they have reached a professional level. »