It has haunted Quebec folklore and imagination for more than 250 years. La Corriveau, whose first name has almost been erased by history, is now at the heart of a superbly conducted musical theater piece which tries, successfully, to rehabilitate her.
Created by the Théâtre de l’Œil Ouvert company, the musical show La Corriveau – The Thirst of Crows dwells on the sad fate of Marie-Josephte Corriveau, hanged for having murdered her second husband, the angry Louis Dodier, in 1763. Her corpse, exhibited to passersby in a steel cage, marked the imagination of an entire people, at a time already traumatized by the conquest of New France by the British.
This news item has become a legend to scare children: La Corriveau has metamorphosed with the swelling of time into a witch as cruel as Barbe-Bleue, having sent no less than seven husbands to death.
PHOTO THIERRY DUBOIS, PROVIDED BY THE THEATER OF THE ŒIL OUVERT
Jade Bruneau, on the left, plays Marie-Josephte Corriveau. Right: José Dufour, who plays the role of his lawyer.
With exceptional creativity, the company founded by Jade Bruneau – who signs the staging here and carries on her shoulders the title role of the play – and Simon Fréchette-Daoust – who plays Louis Dodier – pulls off a real tour de force. Because it must be said: the company does not have the means for the big productions that land on our stages carried by the winds of Broadway.
Whatever. La Corriveau – The Thirst of Crows takes us with ingenuity and a lot of sincerity in a captivating story, rooted in the depths of our terroir.
Even if the outcome is known before the first note is played, we let ourselves be guided with a happiness that we cannot ignore by these eight interpreters, very solid in the game as in the song.
One of the great merits of this resolutely feminist production is to unfold to the rhythm of original music and songs. And what songs they are! We must emphasize the quality of the words imagined by Geneviève Beaudet and Félix Léveillé, as well as that of the composition by Audrey Thériault, in a musical arrangement by Marc-André Perron. Certain pieces, in particular the song with trad accents The mad woman in Dodierare little gems that remain in our minds long after the performance, a sign of their effectiveness.
Admittedly, not everything is perfect in this production: the recited texts sometimes err on the side of a certain heaviness, imposed by not always well-advised rhymes, and the choice to punctuate the story with a few anachronisms raises eyebrows (like this cell phone that arrives in the narrative like an unwanted hair on the soup). The public would have understood – without being pointed out to them a little too strongly – that the hearsay from the 18th century church squarese century have been replaced today by the malicious rumors of social networks… But these are all in all minor flats in a production of a scale which – we admit – we did not expect.
With 13 years of activity on the clock, the Théâtre de l’Œil Ouvert is unquestionably one of the most brilliant young people on which Quebec can count in terms of musical theatre. Let’s hope they still have plenty of stories to tell us in their boxes… Besides, the next meeting is already set for August, with the show Belmontinspired by the work of Diane Dufresne.
La Corriveau – The Thirst of Crows
Musical theater directed by Jade Bruneau, with eight performers
La Corriveau – The Thirst of Crows is presented on June 16 and 17 at the Monument-National in Montreal.
The piece will then go on tour, from July 6 to 29 at the Desjardins Cultural Center in Joliette, then from August 10 to 26 at Carré 150 in Victoriaville.
Several other dates are planned until April 2024.