Created last year at La Chapelle, the piece This hill is never truly silent is being resumed these days at Prospero. This free adaptation of Myth of Sisyphus signed Gabriel Charlebois-Plante brilliantly questions our eternal beginnings, as much as our daily renunciations.
A pile of stones was dumped on the stage, where the four performers took turns giving their monologues. The playing surface is therefore bumpy, so that they have an unsteady approach, a way of showing the fragility of the characters, who express the anxiety they feel on a daily basis.
They are each in the room – of an apartment or a house – from which they do not dare to leave. Too busy meeting their basic needs, day after day. They are also gripped by fear. And then the seasons pass. They tell themselves that they should come out fine, but the force of inertia is powerful.
However, they are free to go out. But they are also free to stay indoors. It’s more secure. And then, there are so many things to do inside…
Philippe Boutin, Amélie Dallaire, Papy Maurice Mbwiti and Élisabeth Smith brilliantly embody the very Chekhovian characters of Gabriel Charlebois-Plante. Stuck in their daily routine, they aspire to a better life, but they are incapable of getting started, of breaking out of their lethargy, their immobility. They are waiting…
There is therefore also a touch of the absurd in This hillwhich also recalls the piece Waiting for Godotby Samuel Beckett, in which two wanderers, Vladimir and Estragon, wait, in the same place, day after day, for the arrival of a certain Godot… who will never come.
And then there is the Myth of Sisyphusin which Albert Camus attempts to find meaning in existence, in a world where, according to him, God does not exist. Sisyphus, let us add, is this figure from Greek mythology, condemned by the gods to push a rock to the top of a mountain; rock which falls and which Sisyphus must tirelessly push back towards the summit.
Gabriel Charlebois-Plante, who also directs, has favored a very physical game to deliver this striking existential text, which explores the themes of freedom, happiness, acceptance, but also what binds us to others. Because it’s still more fun to be two, three or four pushing the rock to the top of the hill, right?
Visit the part’s website
This hill is never truly silent
By Gabriel Charlebois-Plante
With Philippe Boutin, Amélie Dallaire, Papy Maurice Mbwiti and Élisabeth SmithAt Prospero until October 19