Leaving the École supérieure de théâtre at UQAM in 2004, Maude Laurendeau had a dazzling start to her career: let us mention the seven seasons of Yamaska on television, the role of the beautiful Lurette in Babine and Esimésac on the big screen, and the four years of creation and touring with Sexy concrete, a documentary theater show dedicated to the collapse of the Concorde viaduct. Ten years later, the actress with the piercing gaze returns to the Porte Parole company, this time to tell her own story, that of a mother of two little girls, the eldest of whom, Rose, is autistic.
Even before the official diagnosis begins a daily quest, a daily struggle, a fierce struggle to obtain help, assistance, explanations, listening, services … Embodying his own role, that of a woman who is at the same time a mother, a citizen and an artist, Maude Laurendeau takes us on a journey of the most moving, but in all sobriety, without effects, without excess of pathos, respecting most of the tested codes documentary theater, starting with addressing the public and recreating real conversations on stage.
As All inclusive, François Grisé’s show about the aging of the population, and I like Hydro, that of Christine Beaulieu devoted to energy management, Rose and the machine brings to light in a shocking way the faults of the system, first that of health, visibly undermined by the recent reform, then that of education. After the detection of the signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), then the diagnosis, comes the intensive behavioral intervention (ICI) in an intellectual disability rehabilitation center (CRDI) … This is only the beginning of ‘a course littered with almost as many acronyms as pitfalls. In the scenography of Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle, which evokes both childhood, its playfulness and its imagination, but also the cogs of an unpredictable bureaucratic machine in which it is perilous to maintain its balance, Édith Patenaude stages the adventures of Maude in an efficient way, but without great inventiveness.
As for Julie Le Breton, she brilliantly fulfills the heavy task of playing the 43 characters – psychoeducators, counselors, social workers, speech therapists, occupational therapists, daycare educators, special education technicians, remedial teachers, teachers … – with which the heroine dialogues during the two hours that the show lasts.
When we learn that Julie Le Breton is Maude’s sister-in-law and Rose’s godmother, the performance takes an even more moving turn. We then give the floor to two autistic people, a young man and a teenager, who do not lack insight, humor and lucidity. The stake of neurodiversity then appears in all its necessity: the neurological functions which deviate from the norm are not gaps, but indeed riches. It seems essential to rethink the whole “machine” by adopting this point of view.
Not only has Maude Laurendeau succeeded in bringing order to what she lived, in mourning, in giving meaning to her trials, she also succeeded in questioning power and shaking up ideas. received. Meeting with oneself which goes through a series of meetings with others, then finally with the public, Rose and the machine has everything you need to get an exceptional response.