It’s not just words of love that can make hearts beat. The show To great evils, great speechess demonstrates this, twenty times rather than once.
This collage of extracts from speeches that have marked history with a capital H offers the public a unique chance to discover through words 230 years of struggles for equality, fights for civil rights and calls for the mobilization of people. nations.
Rémi Villemure was responsible for adapting these texts to extract the sap from them. With artistic director Luce Rozon and director Marie Guibourt, he chose passages that resonate strongly in Quebec – and the world – today.
Four very inspired performers
Some speeches are more recent – let’s think of Yes We Can by Barack Obama – but others were written a long time ago. This is the case of the Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens by Olympe de Gouges, which dates from 1791. The French writer aimed through this text to obtain access to citizenship and the right to vote for women. Without success, since it was not until 1944 that French women could finally vote.
PHOTO BERTRAND EXERTIER PROVIDED BY AGENTS DOUBLES
Poetry also finds its place here. Martin-David Peters, Dorothée Berryman, Marc Béland and Naïla Louidort (in order) recite the poem Speak White by Michèle Lalonde.
The texts are carried, in a refined setting, by four very inspired performers: Dorothée Berryman, Marc Béland, Naïla Louidort and Martin-David Peters. They handle words without ever trying to pastiche those who originally said them. They maintain the splendor, the breath or the emotion, but do not get bogged down in tics or intonations. Several video projections taken from historical archives – or old ridiculously macho advertisements – support their game. The music, used sparingly, supports certain passages without drowning them out.
Result: we think we hear René Lévesque when Marc Béland repeats two of his speeches, including the one following the defeat of the referendum in 1980.
Throats tighten before the hope raised high by Martin-David Peters and Naïla Louidort, who repeat the famous and moving speech of Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington in 1963: I had a dream (I had a dream).
And we shudder with horror when Marc Béland launches into a speech full of gall towards the Jewish people, chanted by Adolf Hitler in front of a conquered crowd.
Between light and shadow
It must be emphasized that this show is not only woven into good feelings. The warlike rhetoric of Hitler, Himmler and George Patton can be heard there. Because we must never forget that if “the pen is mightier than the sword”, as Malala Yousafzai said so well (in another captivating speech from the show), words also sometimes serve to sharpen hatreds. And if the well-handled word can bring hope, it can also give rise to the worst atrocities.
With its right balance between light and shadow, To great evils, great speeches Above all, it encourages us to think about the world that is ours, here and now. And we cannot help but feel a little discouraged by the hiccups of history and by the poor eloquence of certain current leaders.
Fortunately, after almost two hours of show (intermission included), hope finally prevails. Like a renewed desire to watch over these rights which have been hard won in part thanks to the verve of these genius orators. Because there is nothing more dangerous than indifference. It’s not us who say it, it’s the writer and philosopher Elie Wiesel, in a speech given at the White House in 1999. Yet another punchy speech and favorite of this show touching from start to finish.
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Big words, big speeches
Directed by Marie Guibourt. With Dorothée Berryman, Marc Béland, Naïla Louidort and Martin-David Peters
At Gesù then in Quebec and Sainte-AgatheUntil February 10 at Gesù