The original idea of Éloize’s new creation is both simple and brilliant: to tell the story of the Dalhousie train station, which today houses the company’s headquarters. But despite a good start, the acrobatic show fails to avoid clichés, especially in a second part where clichés abound.
We enter the first room of Dalhousie Station as if we were getting ready to board a train. Suitcases are scattered pell-mell against the walls of the historic building.
The spectator-traveler is quickly immersed in the social and political context of the 19th century.e century thanks to the appearance of newspaper headlines projected 360 degrees onto the station walls. The Press, The truth, Duck, The cry of the people, The Canadian Courier… No doubt, we are going to take a trip back in time.
The narration (which switches from French to English) first sets the scene for Montreal life in the 1850s: a difficult life, with its seedy working-class neighborhoods, unsanitary housing, and the absence of sewer systems. All of these factors contributed to the outbreak of epidemics such as smallpox.
We will also be discussing the demonstrations against mandatory vaccination imposed by Montreal Mayor Honoré Beaugrand. Well, well… All this is both instructive and entertaining – we are thinking in particular of the many tourists from Old Montreal who stop here and pick up a page of our history. Very good.
The establishment of a telegraph line along the railway – and the transmission of telegrams (the ancestors of text messages) – is the ideal pretext to bring out a long cord… which will be used for a tightrope act (magnificent, by the way). An original idea, which allows the circus to be tied to the historical narrative.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE ELOIZE WEBSITE
The exchange of letters between two lovers at the end of the 19th centurye century is concretized by their meeting, on the train.
The same will be true when it comes to the city’s first streetlights or the first bicycle messengers (nicknamed the Boys), who worked for the Canadian Pacific (CP) to deliver said telegrams to important customers. Another great excuse to do some acrobatic cycling.
The North-West Rebellion campaign is also covered, with the CP serving to transport the troops who suppressed the Métis uprising led by Louis Riel, who was sentenced to death… Although brief, the story is well-paced, even if some passages, notably with Canadian Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, lack clarity and are delivered to us in a convoluted style.
We finally come to the heart of the subject that interests us: the departure of the Pacific Express, which left Montreal’s Dalhousie station on Berri Street on June 28, 1886, to make the first transcontinental journey to Vancouver. A historic journey of 4,700 km, which took place over a period of six days. We could have insisted a little more on the fact that we were in the said departure point!
Through all this, we are relayed the love correspondence of two young people separated at the time of the smallpox epidemic, a nice way to continue the story with a more human touch, while integrating circus numbers.
Up until this point, Fernand Rainville’s staging holds up pretty well, despite a few clichés here and there – the segment on hockey, for example – and the concoction of story-projections-acrobatics is well-balanced. But as the journey progresses, things get worse. In the second room where the spectator is pushed, the commonplaces and folklore scenes multiply…
PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE ELOIZE WEBSITE
The train journey involves a series of acrobatics such as diabolo and contortions.
The train journey, a pretext for new acrobatics, is less solid. The rhythm established during the first part, dictated by the historical narrative, loses force. The projections become rarer.
Our two lovers, whose correspondence alone served the story well, appear to us in the flesh, like historical guides leading a group of tourists on a neighborhood tour… Their simple evocation seemed more effective to us. As for the acrobatics that follow one another in the carriages, they lack subtlety and seem to us to have been tacked on there, to add a bit of circus…
The finale, unfortunately, is rushed. One of the interpreters informs us, newspaper in hand – in a confused manner – that the arrival station, in Vancouver, was razed by fire! Really? Before? After? During? It’s not clear…
In fact, the Port-Moody station in Vancouver did catch fire a few days before the train left Montreal. That is why the historic departure from east to west was done “with no fuss,” according to the encyclopedia of the Centre des mémoires montréalaises (MEM). And that is why there are no photos of the train leaving Dalhousie station. This is relevant information, but it should have been relayed earlier, and in the narration, not hastily at the end of the show by an out-of-breath acrobat.
Finally, when the traveler believes he has arrived at his destination, he is brought back to the first room for a final number with straps (nice in itself) and a folk dance led by our acrobat guides. In short, a somewhat chaotic arrival for a trip that had started well.
Visit the show website
Have a good trip
At Dalhousie Station, until August 12