Thunderbolt on the boards. To launch the 50e season in its history, the Duceppe Theater presents moma moving original creation on the strength of family love.
Posted at 3:20 p.m.
Carried by a cast of Arab performers from the four corners of the Maghreb, the Middle East and Quebec, mom is already to be classified in the essentials of the start of the school year, if not of the entire season.
With a large dose of humor and sensitive sensitivity, Nathalie Doummar tells the story of a female clan that comes together to watch over the dying patriarch. Around the dying man and grandmother Nana (formidable Mireille Naggar), three generations of women wait, each with their hopes and disappointments. From the youngest to the oldest, they are all looking for their way, torn between their Christian Egyptian ancestry and the adopted homeland of Quebec.
PHOTO DANNY TAILLON, PROVIDED BY DUCEPPE
Mireille Naggar (above) is overwhelming in the role of Nana.
There is Joséphine, who peppers her speech with many words in English (very efficient Mireille Tawfik), Mado, who drags a complete pharmacy in her bag (tremendously funny Natalie Tannous), the young Sarah (Ambre Jabrane, very fair), who questions what love means. And there is Diane, the one whose divorce and short relationship with a woman rank high in the pantheon of family disgraces. This role is played alternately by Nathalie Doummar and Sharon Ibgui. During the premiere on Thursday, the entire cast played a perfect score, without false notes.
These resilient, lively women are reminiscent of other women who have left their mark on Quebec theater forever: Michel Tremblay’s sisters-in-law. There is in mom the same way of starting from the intimacy of the characters to tell the universal. And here we find this same unconditional love of the playwright for his characters, however imperfect they may be.
Only, unlike the sisters-in-law who strip Germaine Lauzon of her stamps, the women of Nathalie Doummar remain united. The disapproval of some and the resentment of others certainly crack the family fabric, but the latter does not give in so much love is great in this tightly woven clan.
To offer a different perspective on this camera – and in particular on the dying person who is at the center of all attention – the director Marie-Ève Milot and the scenographer Geneviève Lizotte have deployed a gigantic mirror above the stage. . The result is striking. The images that are projected there to symbolize the passage of time are imbued with a gentle poetry and allow us to better understand the contours of the personality of those approaching death.
Among all the qualities of this favorite show, we will also remember the accuracy of the dialogues. Nathalie Doummar had already displayed her immense dramatic talent with Love is a dumpling and The wolf. For momshe seems to have carved the words out of her very flesh, offering the audience great bursts of emotion, from spontaneous laughter to tears, impossible to hold back.
Definitely, we are dealing here with great, very great theater.
mom
By Nathalie Doummar, directed by Marie-Ève Milot
With Nathalie Doummar (alternating with Sharon Ibgui), Mireille Naggar, Natalie Tannous and nine other performers.Chez Duceppe, until October 8