Enjoyable piece on the saving power of the creative act, Rita in the desert arrives in world premiere on the stage of the Quat’Sous, carrying with it a desert wind and many questions about the powers that can be arrogated by the creator. A theatrical jewel worn by an actor in full possession of his (immense) means.
He had finally found a project worthy of his talent. Lucien Champion, a journalist without stature in a provincial daily, was going to write down the exploits of Rita Houle, in his fifties, selected to participate in a large motorized rally in the Gobi desert. He would make her a star; it would make him an author. That was the pact …
However, in life as in the theater, it happens that the best scaffolded plans end up collapsing. Between the biographer and his muse, nothing goes as planned. But whatever. Lucien Champion has decided to write, to tell, in short, to create, even if it means embellishing and knitting in more or less tight stitches around the truth …
Breathtaking performance
Roger Larue is breathtaking in the role of Lucien Champion, this man who dreams of getting out of his mediocrity by leaving great texts for posterity. Able to go from flamboyant to pathetic, from lyrical to prosaic, this great actor leads us by the tip of his nose – and the tip of his heart – by telling with all the verve of which he is capable the improbable, but oh so captivating, stories that have come out. of his character’s brain.
PHOTO MARIE-ANDRÉE LEMIRE, PROVIDED BY THE QUAT’SOUS THEATER
Roger Larue, in the role of Lucien Champion
In the almost silent role of Rita Houle, Alexandrine Agostini offers a strong presence. The silence of this recalcitrant muse contrasts with the boiling volcano that is Lucien Champion. This anonymous woman is a real blank page on which Champion can put his feverish pen to imagine a thousand destinies for her.
Isabelle Leblanc, who signs this brilliant text in addition to acting as a director, has chosen to give her character the ultimate power: that of creating without looking behind. Because for Champion, the question arises: why bother with reality when fiction is more beautiful? Can a creator not claim the right to all possibilities, including the right to tell not what happened, but what could have happened?
Nice transformation
The playwright and theater teacher, who worked for a long time with Wajdi Mouawad, knew how to find the genius necessary to transform into a theatrical object what she had first written in the form of a novel. Thank you for this to the Théâtre de l’Opsis, which supported her in her approach. The staging also adds to the happiness of the show. Roger Larue lives entirely in this stage transformed into a shabby basement, where dilapidated presses sit alongside piles of old newspapers. We can easily imagine why Lucien Champion dreams of escaping by the thought of this room which smells musty …
In the midst of fabrications and false truths, one fact remains: for the spectator, the escape is total. And the pleasure cannot be denied …
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