After female dog(s) (2018) and Ordinary Guerrilla (2019), two shows presented at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, Marie-Ève Milot and Marie-Claude St-Laurent come to Quat’Sous to add a third chapter to their exciting feminist theatre. Unfortunately, despite happy intentions – “to visit the territories of love between women” -, Sappho just don’t go over the ramp.
Poetess of ancient Greece, Sappho would have lived around the VIIand century BC. AD on the island of Lesvos. From his life and his work (of which only a few fragments have survived) were born sapphism and lesbianism. Between the pupils of Sappho circulated the Philia, this mixture of love and friendship hitherto reserved for men, an egalitarian feeling, that is to say, unfolding far from any domination, outside any hierarchy. For individuals living in the 21stand century, Sappho’s ideas are not only inspiring, but also beautifully subversive.
To pay homage to this heritage, to celebrate it, even to rehabilitate it, the creators of the show imagined Denise (Muriel Dutil), neither more nor less than the reincarnation of Sappho in today’s Montreal. Although ill, although constantly threatened by the “renovictions”, the former owner of a bar “for women only” welcomes, within the four walls of her ruined apartment in the Centre-Sud, women who, for various reasons, cross various hardships, need shelter, a refuge, a home where they can regain a taste for life. We discover Sacha the impetuous (Nathalie Claude), Joris the shy (Alix Mouysset), Ariane the bruised (Florence Blain Mbaye) and then Denise’s daughter, Chloé the scowling (Katia Lévesque).
While admiring the special bond that unites these women, the power of their sisterhood, we are generally sorry for the banality of their daily lives. While we would like so much to be empathetic to the stories of these “lesbians from mother to daughter”, something prevents us from doing so. However, it is about crucial themes: aggression and reparation, love and mourning, homophobic violence and economic domination… What keeps us at a distance for nearly two hours? Should the portraits have been deepened? To flesh out certain dialogues? Give the staging more momentum?
Relating key moments in Sappho’s destiny through illustrations and retroprojected collages, Alix Mouysset adds pleasant visual poetry to the performance. Unfortunately, the two dimensions of the show, dramatic and didactic, never form a harmonious whole; the whole is never more than the sum of the parts.