Stage echoes | Nahéma Ricci: the call of the boards

She turned many heads with her stunning performance in the film Antigone by Sophie Deraspe, released in 2019. After cinema and television (Completely high school, Paradise Motel…), Nahéma Ricci tackles a new challenge: defending a role in the theatre.

Her baptism of the boards, the 25-year-old actress will live it at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, in a creation entitled Clandestines. Co-written by great accomplices Marie-Claude St-Laurent and Marie-Ève ​​Milot, the play aims to be a dystopia set in the (very) near future.

“It is about women who practice illegal abortions in Quebec,” explains Marie-Ève ​​Milot, who also signs the staging. “The play takes place just as a new law restricting the right to abortion is about to be passed. We see social change taking place before our eyes. We are in shock at this announcement, as we were on June 24th [lorsque la Cour suprême des États-Unis a invalidé l’arrêt Roe c. Wade]. We decided to play the dangerous game of imagining how it could happen to us. »

Nahéma Ricci interprets here a central role, a role of which she means nothing, except this: “Vera has been in my head for two years and I continue to discover her. It has a wonderful complexity. She is a woman in pain who resembles me in my darkest parts. »

The privilege is all the greater when the roles are written expressly for oneself. This is the case in Clandestines. “We had Nahéma in mind while writing our first act and she greatly nourished the writing of the second act”, explains Marie-Ève ​​Milot.

Why her and not another? “She is an actress who has an extreme strength in softness and in what can be tenuous. Her character doesn’t go where you expect her to, she’s mysterious. And Nahéma has this enigmatic presence on which we can put many things. With it, we can go far in discussions and probe territories that are difficult to visit. It is important in this project where it is sometimes necessary to defend a system of values ​​which does not belong to us. »

A dizzying leap

Nahéma Ricci accepted this first theatrical role more than strong because she knew that she would be well surrounded. Because this “leap into the void” is not trivial for her. “It’s so dizzying. I could cry! But there is around me a troop spirit such as I have never experienced. In 2020, during the pandemic, we were able to repeat. The only people I saw were the other actors in the play. It saved my sanity!

“I also realize how much work a play represents,” she continues. In the cinema, I am not involved in the whole creative process, as is the case here. I will never see a play the same way again! The relation to time is also different compared to the cinema, where it is often repeated that each minute of filming costs $5,000! “In the theater, where each project takes on the appearance of a marathon, no one would dare to make this kind of calculation…

By jumping on the boards, the young woman will realize a childhood dream.

Nahéma Ricci’s acting career began as a teenager in feature films Elsewhere by Samuel Matteau (a project she embarked on on the recommendation of her best friend, Théodore Pellerin). This career took off with Antigone. Now, Clandestines is likely to open other doors to lead it to other ambitious projects. And dizzying.

Clandestines is presented from January 24 to February 11, at the Michelle-Rossignol hall of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui.

6^e International Biennial of Digital Art

Presented by ELEKTRA, the 6^e International Digital Art Biennial is currently in full swing at Arsenal until February 5, including the series METAMORPHOSIS which brings together the work of 27 artists from four continents. Not to be missed on January 26, 27 and 28 at 7 p.m., a performance by the great Louise Lecavalier in the company of visual artist Lu Yang. Lasting 30 minutes, Lu Yang: Delusional World mixes the virtual and real worlds, and explores the theme of Buddhist reincarnation using various forms of avatars. Drawing inspiration from video games, Japanese manga and club culture, the work captures Lecavalier’s live movements, becoming the avatars of the visual artist on screen.

Iris Gagnon-Paradise, The Press

The blaze in the language of Shakespeare

Under the title of Wildfirethe room The blaze is presented for the first time in English in Quebec (with French surtitles). The staging is by Jon Lachlan Stewart. First created at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in 2016, then revived at Usine C in 2019, David Paquet’s play was a great success in Mexico, Switzerland and the United States. The text, winner of the BMO prize and the Sony Labou Tansi international francophone theater prize, was also nominated for the Michel-Tremblay prize. Wildfire will be on view until January 28 at Théâtre La Chapelle in Montreal, as part of the Wildside Festival by Théâtre Talisman, in partnership with Centaur.

-Luc Boulanger The Press

The return of Fat Guy

Mathieu Gosselin’s first solo show, Fat Guy is a baroque theatrical object, halfway between performance, poetry recital, spoken word and the DJ set. The production of the Rear Bench Theater is resumed from January 31 in the intimate room of Prospero. By playing his “alter ego”, the actor signs a “poetic-analog” proposal, in a staging by Sophie Cadieux. A disparate collage, evoking his poetic universe, his musical tastes, but also his clumsiness and his phobias. From January 31 to February 18, at Prospero.

-Luc Boulanger The Press

Kim Despatis and stop kiss

The room stop kiss by Diana Son, translated by Maryse Warda, will be on view at La Petite Licorne from January 30. Actress Kim Despatis (The lands above, Sleepless night, The flaw) signs here his very first staging, with this “queer text” from the 1990s with current themes. A production of the company Tableau Noir whose mandate is to favor emerging artists, from conception to interpretation. Founded in New York in 1998, stop kiss addresses, through the trajectory of two young women, “the question of the liberation of desire, regardless of our sexual orientation”, according to the press release. From January 30 to February 24, at La Licorne.

-Luc Boulanger The Press

Lined at Factory C

After his visit to Quebec in 2019 with The walker’s signalcollective Raoul is back at Usine C with his new creation, A ceremonystarring 1^er to February 4. A show that mixes music and texts, theater and poetry. In a grand banquet that looks like the end of the world, guests invite their ancestors to the table, from Don Quixote to Antigone, going back to the dinosaurs. A few days before, from January 24 to 26, another reunion with the Korean artist Jaha Koo, seen last May at the FTA. The one-man band will be at Usine C with his new show, Lolling and Rollingpresented in English and Korean, with surtitles in French and English.

-Luc Boulanger The Press

rock bottom at the opening of the season in MAY

Two emerging artists are teaming up for an original proposal that will kick off the season at the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels). With rock bottomperformer and choreographer Emile Pineault (a graduate of the National Circus School and having performed on international stages) explores with author Gabriel Cholette (voice of Quebec LGBTQ+ literature, author of Underground Notebooks and teacher of creative writing at the University of Montreal) the concept of “bottomless”, in connection with sexuality and the fact of reaching the bottom of the barrel. A creation combining text, dance and performance that invites the audience to explore the buried areas of their interiority. From January 25 to 28.

Iris Gagnon-Paradis, La Presse