A staging in Quebec, a creation in Montreal: the agenda of the precocious creator of 30 years knows little respite. And between spring awakening which he has just staged at the Trident, a large theater of which he is now artistic director, and the text of his own which he is about to bring into the world, Olivier Arteau sees themes which echo each other: the question of identity, the feeling of belonging, “how one defines oneself in relation to oneself and in relation to the group”.
Originally, Piss standing up without lifting her skirt started from his discomfort, going back to childhood, in front of his exuberant way of moving, which he considered “too feminine and childish”. The author and director sees the play as the second part of a project started with Urinal modesty, the astonishing performance made with Fabien Piché in the window of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in March 2021, which asked the question “Does our body belong to us? “. Here, his questioning about the construction of identity eventually widened: “Do I belong to myself or are others defining my own identity? »
The first part of the show depicts the reunion of a gang of friends. The characters, of different sexual and gender identities, end up accusing each other of not conforming to the rules of their community… which are like fashionable currents which one cannot escape. Do these labels lead to a better way of being yourself? I do not think so. And it is not because we are socially considered as a vulnerable being that we do not have our paradoxes and that we are not filled with cognitive biases. The self-righteous, we all wear it a little [en soi]. In short, we are quick to judge others.
If his previous piece, the tasty Made in Beautiful, painted a historical panorama, it is very anchored in the present, resembling first of all a sociological study with its discussions around very current concepts. More intimate, the second part pours into autofiction. Arteau developed this “collective work” in stage writing, rewritten according to the improvisations of the performers. The multidisciplinary cast is formed by its “chosen family”, very close artists who play themselves, with “their complexes, their failings”. “I questioned them about their inner monster, their paradoxes, so that we play with burning material for them. It’s about trying to annihilate the idea of fiction: we already wear a persona, a fictional mask. So why not use this character that we create every day on stage to talk about ourselves? »
moments of shame
Each actor’s alter ego therefore delivers a kind of solo confession, on a “moment of shame” that he experienced, which he then tries to reclaim, to magnify through music, video or a choreographic segment. We can well imagine what it entails of immodest unveiling for the performers. “Even in the process, it was not always easy. Because it comes to wake up dark parts, play in certain traumas and even reveal existing dynamics in the group. It’s as if every day we had to ask for their consent to this piece, because it comes so much from them. Shame is required to try to get to the heart of this show, more than in any other. »
But the evening is announced as emancipatory. “I think that from a certain age, friendships calcify: you [fige] roles between us. So, it is a question of saying: can we talk about it to try to decalcify what we have taken for granted? It’s a quest to destroy the prejudices that exist between us, that exist in all the communities. It is not because we have chosen ourselves that we have to define ourselves. We must seek together to become indefinite. »
A concept that Olivier Arteau had begun to think about during his master’s degree in dance – interrupted by his appointment to the Trident: a desire to remain as porous, as permeable as possible, “and not the most rigid in relation to an identity or to an artistic wish. “But how can one become indefinite in a world that seeks more and more definitions? »
For the creator, we should not have to define ourselves. “We should just be and receive others without having to name them. This is why there is dance and music in the show: these are unspeakable spaces, where there is nothing to say, where we just live. Spaces where finally we receive. We have goosebumps. The flesh, but not the words to define the moment. »
And through the spectrum of plural identities on stage, he hopes the piece will elicit a sense of recognition in the audience. “The goal is to create a sense of relief, much like what we felt when we built the show. »
self-mockery
All of this is approached with humour, the mandate of Olivier Arteau’s company, Théâtre Kata, being to work on self-mockery. “It’s the basis of my work: you have to know how to laugh at yourself to try to get through it. I take a critical look at who we are because it’s impossible to be authentic. I think that authenticity does not exist in itself. We can try to be more honest, sincere. But you can’t be authentic when you’re with other people. In this quest to want to be even more yourself, I think we fit into various very specific silos. »
In the story of Piss standing up without lifting her skirt there is also the tragedy of an absent character, whom his friends have not been able to take care of. “Does wanting to be so much yourself forget to take care of others? asks Olivier Arteau. His generation, he says, experiences a “disconnection between the carnal body and the pixelated body”. “We grew up with computer screens, watching people on platforms having sex before having sex. So, I think we are a generation that is constantly looking for itself, and by dint of being in search of its own self, do we lose a little of this gaze turned towards others? »
The young creator never ceases to question the notion of a collective project. That of Quebec in Made in Beautiful. And that of the “LGBT community” in this room. “Are we really together? Is there a feeling of connection between these individuals or do we live so many different realities that it is impossible to unite us under the same name? It’s sure that [la pièce] takes a critical look at a vulnerable community. But in these communities too, there are flaws, great pains that are not taken care of. »
Finally, with this show whose form branches off after an initial choral part, evoking his praised previous works, the artist, who quickly developed a strong signature, seeks to extricate himself from an aesthetic format in which he himself feels sometimes taken. “Do I create according to the framework in which people valued me or do I create with always as much sincerity? This show, which is in three parts, is a kind of mutation of forms and narrative frameworks that I want to borrow. I think that even the show itself is a work that seeks itself — positively, I hope. Throughout, he seeks the right form to express the right feeling. I try, through this show, to undefine myself and to set myself traps so as not to fall into aesthetics that will define me even more. »