In this luxuriant theatrical return, here is an important show not to be missed. My name is Muhammad Ali is a remarkable success in all respects. An immense text carried by a staging and performers in tune.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Congolese playwright Dieudonné Niangouna wrote My name is Muhammad Ali 10 years ago and his piece was created in 2013 in Luxembourg. This is undoubtedly a text that will cross the ages so much it is right about the struggles for emancipation.
The life of the American boxer Muhammed Ali, the one who said “to fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee”, allows the narration to address unfortunately always hot topics. Whether it’s ordinary or blatant racism in everyday life, the worst clichés about black people and discrimination against artists of African descent, it’s all there. Boxer and actors, same fight.
I did not come to the theater by chance. Fate makes no mistake. […] He is the one who dies for you. But you will always have your name. Make sure no one steals it from you. My name is Muhammad Ali.
Text by Dieudonné Niangouna
The language is exquisite, poetic at times, and sharp as a scalpel capable of extracting a tiny cancerous cell from a reactionary body. Frank laughter thus rubs shoulders with the discomfort necessary in this show. And the direct addresses to the public ensure an adequate rhythm in order to digest this dense food.
Defended at the creation by a single performer, the text this time benefits from eight convincing actors and an actress, brilliantly directed by Tatiana Zinga Botao and Philippe Racine. They have spared no detail to subtly underline the highlights of a successful show, which we would like to see circulating in Quebec.
The contribution of movement advisor Claudia Chan Tak should also be highlighted with constant choreography on the Quat’Sous small stage. Simple and effective with its brick walls, its boxing ring cables and the exposed backstage of the room, Marie-Ève Fortier’s decor is to match.
The play is a co-production of La Sentinelle, made up of Tatiana Zinga Botao, Philippe Racine (co-directors) and Lyndz Dantiste (one of the eight male performers). Founded only five years ago, the troupe can already boast of making the local theater scene progress with brilliance.
Because we have to talk about diversity. Practically invisible until recently on stage, it is now asserting itself in schools and in the theater by showing all the qualities of artists that we have been too slow to recognize. My name is Muhammad Ali is a flagship, the essential step to take to unclench your fist and reach out to the future, as suggested in the text.
And the n-word, you ask? Of course, full. Demonstrating the intelligence of the heart and the rage to live that it should.
My name is Muhammad Ali
By Dieudonné Niangouna, directed by Tatiana Zinga Botao and Philippe Racine. With Lyndz Dantiste, Nadine Jean, Fayolle Jean Jr, Anglesh Major, Maxime Mompérousse, Widemir Normil, Martin-David Peters, Rodley Pitt and Franck Sylvestre
At the Quat’Sous TheaterUntil September 21