We were already won over last year by this new seasonal tradition established by the Petit Théâtre du Nord, in Boisbriand. In its third edition, Festive evenings confirms the appeal of its formula, simple but warm and very camp. A cocktail of untold tales, Laurentian history and music, served in a pleasant atmosphere.
The 2023 version, Builders of the future, has as its declared theme the industries which have marked the Laurentians. But recurring motifs also emerge from the four tales: they all seem to be centered on an artistic talent and often highlight a relationship of transmission, the encouragement or help of an older character.
None other than Robert Lalonde took up his pen to evoke — or invent — his beginnings as a writer, and how he came to be published for the first time (with The beautiful terror). Henri Chassé carries this text with contagious pleasure, My Smith Corona, my father-in-law and the Rolland paperwhere the author displays great verve and a sense of poetic image.
In the fanciful tale by Marianne Dansereau, artistic gift becomes rather a curse for the narrator, pushed by her grandmother to play a piano which will turn out to be… Magical. Let’s say no more about this amusing story, told by the expressive Catherine Paquin-Béchard.
In the room, beautifully decorated with scenography by Laurianne Gagnon, the show also has the particularity of bringing to life sections of regional history, supported by archive photos. Such as this tragic plane crash in Blainville in 1963, mentioned in the tale of Geneviève Bélisle, narrated with sensitivity by Mélanie St-Laurent. And the story written by Jonathan Caron recalls the Bouchard plan, a munitions factory dating from the Second World War. If the story sometimes seems thin, the chameleonic Rosalie Daoust makes the most of it. The actress – as well as the lively direction of Sébastien Gauthier – energizes the journey of this young girl caught having to paint a commemorative mural, after having usurped the work of a nonagenarian. The sequence also benefits from a catchy original song.
The fluid transitions between the tales and the pleasant musical numbers also give a particularly united look to the show. Especially since the song medleys, often performed in melodious choruses, are chosen for their similar themes.
And we cannot ignore the essential contribution of Benoît Archambault to the success of the evening. The musical director appears on stage as a real one-man band, a pianist who accompanies, sometimes punctuates the action, when he does not come to interpret a few lines himself.