This summer, at the legendary La Marjolaine theater in Eastman, we are offering an entirely female Quebec creation. May contain traces of ego brings together the great qualities and small faults of six authors and as many actresses. Imagine six colorful childhood friends who meet up in the countryside for a weekend of rejuvenation where happiness is not a goal, but a dictatorship. Signed Anne-Sophie Maguire Armand, Maryvonne Cyr, Marie Doyon, Marika Lhoumeau, Marie-Eve Soulard La Ferrière and Sophie Vaillancourt, the play is produced by Encore Spectacles and directed by Marc St-Martin.
It all started in 2017, in La Risée, in the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie district, in Montreal. Located on rue Bélanger, the venue’s mission is to offer emerging artists and women artists a showcase and support in the development of their art. “There were six actresses, all with a penchant for writing,” explains Marie-Eve Soulard La Ferrière. We didn’t know what we were going to talk about. All we wanted was to create together, to write with twelve hands a play that we were going to defend ourselves on stage. »
To set the table and stimulate the imagination, the collective undertakes to collect the many sources of annoyance that an often disoriented era brings to women. “We wrote about what revolted us,” explains the author, “about what irritated us, about what challenged us, about what made us both laugh and cringe. It was largely a question of information overload, this overload of opinions and opinions to which we are exposed every day, but also of the eternal quest for happiness in which we were all, in different ways, engaged. »
Performance at all costs
Among the host of subjects discussed: the proliferation of allergies, the multiplication of injunctions addressed to mothers, particularly through social networks, or even the over-the-top instructions in a yoga class from which we ultimately emerge more stressed than we were. arriving. “Our discussions were very lively,” assures Soulard La Ferrière. There was a lot of talk about the obligation we felt to perform at all times and in all areas. One day, we found a common thread that allowed us to create a real play, and not just a series of sketches. »
This is how six characters were born, six “girl friends” whose reunion will take place in incredible conditions, to say the least, during a personal development retreat in the woods. The play was presented at La Risée in 2017, then again in 2020. “We got excellent reactions,” remembers the author and actress. Because we really liked the text, and we really wanted it to travel, to be heard by as many people as possible, we agreed to let it go, that is to say to grant the rights to a producer who would hire a director and put together a new cast. I won’t hide from you that it was a small loss, but we are very happy to see our play shine today by being carried by actresses of this caliber. »
This five-star cast is made up of Geneviève Brouillette (Jasmine, the great guru of the Jasmine Nature organization), Catherine Proulx-Lemay (Nataly, who has been trying to write a novel for ten years), Valérie Blais (Sylvie, the alcoholic who will certainly relapse), Catherine Paquin-Béchard (Shantale, who left her job as an engineer to become Jasmine’s zealous assistant), Ève Pressault (Isabelle, the burnout nurse) and Joëlle Lanctôt (Stéphanie , the plastic surgery addict). To direct them, we called on Marc St-Martin, who also directed the productions in 2019. Nuns by Dan Goggin, a true classic from La Marjolaine which will return to Eastman this summer, from August 14 to 24.
Fierce criticism
Casually, the play carries out a fierce critique of magical thinking, a tasty parody of the multiple panaceas that contemporary Western society desperately seeks to sell to women. “They do everything,” explains Valérie Blais. There is the rebirth hot, letting go with one hand, the sauna of inhibitions, the yoga of abundance, the spinning dark thoughts, speed coaching, meditation with goats, Zen canoe… It’s endless, and it’s this accumulation that makes the piece effective. There are punches, of course, but it is above all a matter of profusion and one-upmanship, a question of rhythm, of frenzy, of a pace which continues to accelerate. It’s completely crazy, almost comical. »
Above all, we should not believe that the women gathered in this retreat which promises them a true “rebirth” are stupid. “Deprived of sleep, water and food, they never have breaks,” explains Soulard La Ferrière. We never give them time to think about what is happening. This is why they are so under the yoke of Jasmine, indoctrinated with “letting go” and “present moment”.” “We laugh at the situation, but we never laugh at them,” adds Blais. They all have a dream to realize, a need for achievement, a thirst for success, a search for balance, a quest for meaning. They aspire to happiness, how could we hold that against them? »
From diet to skincare, food to fitness to spirituality, social media particularly targets women. We necessarily think of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jacynthe René. “The number of exercises to counter the symptoms of menopause that I see appearing in my feed,” explains Valérie Blais, “is mind-blowing. While there are fewer and fewer services, so little real help, we are bombarded with instant solutions and miracle cures. Anyone can fall into this kind of trap. Especially when we consider the anxiety into which the state of the world can plunge us. »