The headwinds blowing across Quebec’s cultural universe are taking away another theatrical flagship. The Pupulus Mordicus troupe, from Quebec, is preparing to bow out after almost 30 years of existence and tours which have brought its puppets to the major stages of the country and Europe.
A videoconference call and it was done: in a few minutes, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) put an end this summer to the subsidy of $54,000 which filled the coffers of Pupulus — and which had remained unchanged since almost 15 years despite fluctuations in the cost of living.
The CALQ suddenly deprived the company founded in 1995 of half of its annual budget — and, in the same gesture, cut the wings and strings of its puppets.
“Pupulus Mordicus will no longer exist from next spring,” explains Duty Pierre Robitaille, co-founder and current artistic director of the company. We can no longer create shows and we had to leave our workshop to give ourselves some fresh air. In these conditions, it is impossible to continue. »
International fame
It is a particularly bright star which is preparing to disappear from the Quebec cultural landscape. Pupulus Mordicus and his puppet theater for adults won three Masques and were nominated for four other statuettes, in addition to winning several Critics’ Awards throughout their history.
A pioneer, the company was the first to open the stages of the Grand Théâtre to puppets. The collaboration between Pupulus Mordicus and the Quebec institution gave life to shows applauded by the public and acclaimed by critics: Jacques and his master, The green bird, The coatings…A few names among dozens of others who have taken the stage here, in Canada and in Europe.
The troop, “who like to tease the kid hiding behind the tie”, as he wrote Duty 20 years ago, brought his irreverence and madness to universes as rich as they are varied. Freud, Cervantes, Faust, Gainsbourg and countless others have gone through the Pupulus mill to amaze and move, to make people laugh and think.
“I am one of the lucky ones,” believes Pierre Robitaille. For almost 30 years, I was able set the heart of the world on fire. » The brutal end of the adventure, announced on Zoom with an air of “place for young people”, nevertheless undermines the end of a career hailed well beyond the old ramparts of Quebec.
“Pierre is an authority,” says his accomplice from the start, the director Martin Genest, who criticizes the CALQ’s way of doing things. I find that really cavalier, I find that it lacks meaning, and then that it lacks respect, a huge amount of respect, considering the place of this artist. »
I’m one of the lucky ones. For almost 30 years, I was able to set the hearts of the world on fire.
“Mordicus went, like that, into the trash”
The death of a theater is reflected, in the public eye, by its absence from the stages. Artists, for their part, must deal with a much more concrete reality: locking up a room sometimes struck by their flashes of genius, sorting the memories of a life to better throw them in the trash, putting at half-mast a passion that still burns, lack of means to feed it.
“I helped Pierre empty the workshop,” says Martin Genest with sobs in his voice. It was we who painted it, it was our little nest of creation, the place where Pierre became Geppetto who built his puppets… Overnight, we rented a big containerwe filled it… then Mordicus, who marked the history of puppetry and theater in Quebec, went into the trash, like that, all of a sudden. »
About a hundred puppets still remain, piled up in a corner of the cultural shed in Quebec City. There is a Don Quixote with a crazy look, a Mephistopheles phallic up to his nostrils, a Lola with busty curves… So many characters that Pierre Robitaille imagined, sculpted, dressed, articulated, even painting the little white dot in the center of the eye that lights the spark of life.
The future of these stage and travel companions remains uncertain. Pierre Robitaille would like a museum to raise its hand to preserve the most significant pieces of this heritage. UQAM has expressed interest in recovering part of the collection for its graduate studies diploma specializing in puppet theater. All of them, on the other hand, will not be able to survive the disappearance of Pupulus.
“Some will end up in the trash, it will happen,” predicts their creator. Which ones, however, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s me who will have the odium to choose those who will have to leave…”
“Everything will disappear”
At almost 67 years old, Pierre Robitaille remains philosophical about his fate. Art, “like a button,” he says, “will continue to [l]e itch” — unlike the tedious paperwork that artists must complete to obtain funding. He would have liked to continue his transmission mission to train the next generation who would, in a few years, be at the helm of Pupulus. Rather, it is he who will have to scuttle the ship in the spring.
Martin Genest, who co-founded and co-directed Pupulus for 20 years with Pierre Robitaille, attributes this premature death to institutional inequity towards graying artists.
“There is nothing to welcome artists who are between 60 and 70 years old like Pierre, who are really important and to whom, all of a sudden, we say “you produce less, room for the next generation, ciao bye !”, deplores the director, who has collaborated, among others, with Robert Lepage and the Cirque de Soleil. Are we going to relegate them all to oblivion? Losing Pierre is like losing a great painter, with the difference that a painter, at least, leaves a canvas behind him. Here, it’s a living art: we’re going to remember it for, what? 20 years? Then afterward, everything will disappear. »