“Being a liberated woman, you know, it’s not that easy”, sang Cookie Dingler, in a hit by the somewhat corny French group, in the mid-1980s. And today, can a woman be totally free? ?
This is the question posed by Catherine Léger’s play two golden womena reinterpretation of the erotic comedy produced in 1970. And which remains to this day one of the greatest successes in the history of Quebec cinema.
Half a century later, Léger has made a “free and contemporary” adaptation of it, which can be seen in a sober and effective staging by Philippe Lambert, until May 20, at La Licorne (hurry up, c is already almost complete!). The author of Baby sitter and of girls on the loose sign here short and bright text. A modern tale, deliciously amoral, in which she ridicules the prudishness and the double standards of our time. To better celebrate eternal feminine desire.
If the play uses the outline of the screenplay by Claude Fournier and Marie-José Raymond, the story is much less explicit than the feature film. But also funny. The action takes place in the era of #metoo, Tindr and other Facebook. The women are no longer at home, but on maternity leave and on sick leave…due to depression. That too is a reality for women released in 2023. It is not because we laugh during the performance that the observation is funny.
Bye bye, Brossard!
The two neighbors no longer live in Brossard, but in an “eco-responsible” suburban community. They read Catherine Dorion’s essay, The fruitful struggles. And are fascinated by “the infinite panoply of delights” that the ex-politician says she experiences in love.
PHOTO SUZANE O’NEILL, PROVIDED BY THE THEATER DE LA MANUFACTURE
Isabelle Brouillette, Sophie Desmarais and Steve Laplante. The staging, without downtime, offers a wonderful playground for the performers.
However, to live in harmony with our romantic desires, we must first free ourselves from our interior prisons, from our golden cages. In this new version of two golden women, men are a strange species; made of cardboard, not gold. The macho husbands of yesteryear have become spouses of variable geometry, full of contradictions. From then on, we understand the desire of abandoned wives to jump the fence…
Of course, the two women will eventually take action. They are going to fuck everything that moves and moves around the house: the exterminator, the cleaner, the pizza delivery man, the cable guy, the telephone guy… And since times have changed, our era is more heteroflexible than in 1970, one of the neighbors will have a flirtation with a woman who has come to deliver a package to her.
playground
PHOTO SUZANE O’NEILL, PROVIDED BY THE THEATER DE LA MANUFACTURE
In the role of two women in gold and flesh, Sophie Desmarais and Isabelle Brouillette are perfect. We see them here with Mathieu Quesnel.
The staging, without downtime, offers a wonderful playground for the five performers. In the role of two women in gold and flesh, Sophie Desmarais and Isabelle Brouillette are perfect. Funny without ever being caricatural, they flourish from one scene to another by killing their boredom in bed. Mathieu Quesnel and Steve Laplante, two fabulous actors endowed with an innate sense of comedy, play both the husbands and the multiple lovers of their wives. In the role of the mistress, Charlotte Aubin is perverse and seductive.
two golden women addresses contemporary issues, without preaching or heaviness. We stay in the register of comedy. With a black background, because we leave the theater with the curious impression that in terms of sexuality, the quest for women’s liberation remains a long and painful road.
In 2023 as in 1970, this world is strong enough for her, but still designed for her.
two golden women
With Sophie Desmarais, Isabelle Brouillette, Steve Laplante, Mathieu Quesnel and Charlotte Aubin. Directed by Philippe Lambert. Text by Catherine Léger adapted from the screenplay by Claude Fournier and Marie-José Raymond.
At The Unicorn.Until May 20.