Scheduled between the celebrations All inclusive and I like Hydro, a third documentary play designed by Porte Parole will be hosted at the Jean-Duceppe theater this fall. In creation Rose and the machine, Maude Laurendeau recounts her obstacle course, following the diagnosis of ASD (autism spectrum disorder) that her eldest daughter received.
The actress already knew the creative process of Porte Parole, a company whose mission she admired so much that she herself had contacted the director, Annabel Soutar, to offer her her collaboration. Thing done in Sexy concrete, in 2010, where not only was the actress a performer, but where she also participated in the process of interviews and documentation.
Maude Laurendeau naturally thought of the acclaimed company to highlight what she was going through. “The first impulse was like a cry from the heart,” she explains. I found myself in a situation where I encountered so many obstacles, where it was very difficult to access services. And when I realized that many parents around me were going through the same situation, were overwhelmed, did not know where to go to knock for help, were on endless waiting lists, I thought to myself that ‘We had to do something. I needed to talk. “
Writing, which she started to do quite quickly after the diagnosis, first for herself, allowed her to make sense of what she was going through. Research has also done him good. “Documenting myself about autism, in a perspective where I was going to share this knowledge, made the information much more digestible. As if, by not only applying to my life, but to a group of humans, it gave me a perspective on what was going on. And recording everything he did made him feel like he had a little more control over the situation. “We are faced with a lot, a lot of injustices and absurdities when we deal with this system and it does not work. “
As the title suggests, Rose and the machine thus highlights, through Maude Laurendeau’s story and various interviews, these heavy structures that are the health and school systems. Machines in which Rose “hardly finds her way” and struggled to get the help she needed. “There is a lack of services. And there are more and more diagnoses, too: the system finds itself having to help a lot of families at the same time, and it just can’t seem to do it. »Cumbersome bureaucracy, insufficient resources, staff …
But the machine also designates our system of thought, adds the designer. “Including mine, which was absolutely inadequate: it was a prejudiced mom who was diagnosed. Moreover, throughout the whole theater process, my vision has evolved a lot. When I started to write, it was with the aim of denouncing things. And then I realized that I couldn’t ignore my own limitations. As long as I wasn’t going to change my outlook, I couldn’t ask the system to do it either. “
Family history
Bringing this very personal story to life on stage, playing her own role is a difficult exercise for Maude Laurendeau, who does not particularly like to expose herself. During his interview with The duty, three weeks before the premiere, she said she had no hindsight in relation to her subject. “I am not yet able to say the whole text without crying,” she revealed candidly. I am very close to the skin. There, things are better for my daughter. But those more difficult times are not far behind me. It still makes me very emotional to talk about the challenges she faces on a daily basis. “
However, the documentary document process allows this transparency. “And the director, Edith [Patenaude], does a wonderful job, in that it welcomes the state I am in, and it gives me the means to get my word to be heard. “
For her first text, Maude Laurendeau feels solidly surrounded. “Annabel [Soutar] ensures a very rigorous dramaturgical follow-up. And it really is teamwork. This is what was so great, after having lived a somewhat lonely journey of mom: I found myself in a family. “
Especially since the actress who embodies all the other characters on stage (43!) And who participated in “several workshops on the text”, is her sister-in-law, Julie Le Breton. “She’s been at the forefront of it all, so she knows exactly what I’m talking about. “
Although “terrified at the moment”, the author therefore agrees to tell her story on stage, in the hope of making this reality better understood from the inside. A situation that is not limited to cases of autism. “As soon as our child encounters problems or does not fit into a box, it is problematic. I have a lot of friends whose children have been diagnosed with pervasive disorder or ADD [trouble du déficit de l’attention]. It is not necessarily a simpler route. There are many people who can identify, I believe, with this journey of a parent who must seek services, face the gaze of others. »And review his own expectations.
Recalling that “there are as many autisms as there are autistic people”, Maude Laurendeau hopes that her play will provoke discussions, and possibly a reflection on the place given to neurodiversity in our society. “It’s easy to say: let’s open the door to diversity, or let’s accept difference! But how do we do that, concretely? I hope that by taking the spectator by the hand and making him walk my circuit, we will allow him to question his own relationship to difference. “