A Diamond classic
Le Diamant, first of all, brings back to its boards one of the first pieces of Robert Lepage, widely used for more than thirty years. April, with around ten performances, will be an opportunity to see or rewatch Needles and opium. This long-running Ex Machina title, which brings together the figures of Jean Cocteau and Miles Davis in a Saint-Germain-des-Prés mixed with jazz and drugs, unfolds the story of a young Quebecer facing a break. An intimate journey of a love addiction, the show combines the sensitivity and ingenuity of its stage proposal, with its canted platform in the shape of a truncated cube welcoming projections and actors – Olivier Normand here takes on his shoulders the role that Marc played Labrèche, after Lepage at the creation in 1991.
Loves of yesteryear
The feeling of love runs through the repertoire and titles from this winter dive into it naturally, starting with Pride and Prejudice, at Trident in March. In an adaptation by Marianne Marceau and a production by Marie-Hélène Gendreau, the story of Jane Austen will benefit from a vast distribution: around fifteen actresses and actors will share the stages. Enough to give depth to the story of the four Bennet sisters, Elizabeth in the lead, and their mother, who seeks to marry them.
Le Périscope, for its part, offers in April Nina or the fragility of stuffed seagulls. The text by the Franco-Romanian Matéi Visniec, although it dates from 2008, still takes up these canonical characters that are Nina, Treplev and Trigorin. The staging of Guillaume Pepin (The HLA project, Where I hide), which will bring together a singer, a musician and a performer, will allow the band to revisit a classic of romantic torment, i.e. The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.
Certainly ancestor
Compared to the passion and wanderings of youth, the reflections of the second half of life may seem less frequently discussed. However, in Quebec, they will be twice rather than once. Getting old, first of all, marks Larry Tremblay’s return to theatrical creation. On a staging of Claude Poissant, the show opens the winter season at the Trident, before a Montreal sequel at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui. Carried by a star-studded cast (Thomas Boudreault-Côté, Sylvie Drapeau, Marie Gignac, Jacques Girard, Jacques Leblanc, Linda Sorgini), characters “at the edge of their lives” come together to philosophize. It will be interesting to see how much this piece extends or not Beautiful Sundays by Marcel Dubé.
Running a similar theme, Apology will follow, at the end of February, at La Bordée. On a production by the artistic director Michel Nadeau, the text by British-Greek Alexi Kaye Campbell follows the questions of an elderly art historian. This woman from the baby boom, who campaigned in her youth in the movements of her time, looks back on a past which remains to be taken stock of: what remains of the ideals and values that her generation ?
Modern loves
Certain shows obviously represent contemporary incarnations of intimacy, starting with Heimat/Return, opening the season at La Bordée. The first text by actress Mary-Lee Picknell, the play follows a man returning from Germany and a woman whose destiny orchestrates their meeting on a bus. On a staging of Maryse Lapierre (The Plouffes), the sentimental comedy looks towards people struggling with anxiety.
Playing such current notes, Until the woodwork burns, with a text and direction by young actor Silviu Vincent Legault, delves into the harshness of a homosexual relationship experienced. Beneath the air of celebration and attraction, however, lies a power dynamic, with one of the two halves isolating the other from its usual circle. At Premier Acte, March will allow us to explore the themes of restorative justice and domestic violence.
Orpheus twice
Orpheus, who has all the talents and who descended into hell to find Eurydice, will surprisingly inspire more than one play on the stage this winter, starting with The myth of Orpheus, during the Trident season closure. On a text by Isabelle Hubert (The Plouffes), this hybrid of dance and theater will be signed by newcomer Frédérique Bradet, after a production of Factory (Periscope, October 2022) particularly sensitive to bodies. It will be interesting to see what presence this team of actors and dancers, with the choreographer Alan Lake to the staging, will be able to infuse the whole.
A second legendary inspiration will give life to Grapefruit, opening the season at Premier Acte. Carried by Elizabeth Lavoie to the text and the direction (with Joanie Lehoux), this proposal will also take up the legend of Orpheus, with a shift however, because the show for two actresses will rather explore the love between two women, in a modern tragedy. ‘questioning failure in love and fatality.