Stage echoes | Philippe Racine: finding a model in Basquiat

Some meetings are to be marked with a white stone. For Philippe Racine, the encounter with the work of the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat is undoubtedly one of them.

The actor, playwright and director remembers: “A friend who was studying art at university introduced me to Basquiat. It was a revelation! I started to read everything about his life and quickly, I felt a kinship with him. »

For the young man of Haitian origin born in Rouyn-Noranda and having grown up in Joliette, the New York painter with a dazzling style has become a kind of model. “When I was younger, I couldn’t find black role models to identify with in Quebec. Basquiat has become a reference. Like him, I was a young man angry with life. Like him, I wanted to channel this anger into an art that is political and committed. And like him, I had an admiration for the great American black figures like Muhammad Ali or Jackie Robinson. »

It should therefore come as no surprise that the shadow of the iconic painter hangs over the piece that Philippe Racine has been dragging around in his boxes for almost 20 years and which he will present from September 13 at the Jean-Claude-Germain hall. of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui. His title : Which is a Basquiat.

“Later, two events that shocked me a lot forced me to put more rigor into the project: the Fredy Villanueva affair and the death of Alain Magloire, this homeless man who suffered from mental illness and who was killed by the police because he had a hammer in his hands,” he continues.

In his piece, the first solo of his own, Philippe Racine gives the floor to Sammy, a Montreal graffiti artist who is offered a large sum to paint fake Basquiat canvases. This offer will upset the fragile balance that prevails in the existence of the “young street poet” forced to plunge into the painter’s torn universe. “Sammy is a bit like the young adult that I was, even if, at 46, I distanced myself from this alter ego,” believes Philippe Racine.

An icon through his works

Rather than dwelling on the life of the avant-garde Basquiat, Philippe Racine chose to draw inspiration from his paintings to write this “non-linear” piece which unfolds scene by scene.

For this show, Philippe Racine will be alone on stage. Or almost. The stage manager and lighting designer Valérie Bourque will sometimes come on stage where the actor mixes text, original live music and pictorial art.

Do you have to know Basquiat to immerse yourself in this work? Philippe Racine swears not. “The play tells of Sammy’s quest and the influence a role model can have on someone searching for their identity. It’s Sammy’s story and it’s a bit mine too. In the play, I wonder: could I have been a Basquiat and ended up like him, dead of a heroin overdose at 27? Because after all, I carry in me the same creative fire, the same fire in relation to injustices. »

Outraged Which is a Basquiatanother project directed by Philippe Racine takes the stage this Tuesday at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous: My name is Muhammad Ali, which he set up with his companions from the Théâtre de la Sentinelle, Lyndz Dantiste and Tatiana Zinga Botao. This play, which brings together nine Afro-descendant performers, passionately deals with the fight of the black actor in the West. “It was a dream for me to direct these very talented actors. A great solidarity has developed between us. We often meet from afar without ever being able to work together, because we always audition for the same role, the one intended for a black actor… ”

Which is a Basquiatfrom September 13 to 1^er October at the Jean-Claude-Germain hall of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui

Do not miss

Titan Body (Survival Title)

After a sold-out performance last year at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, this poignant play by Audrey Talbot is back. The playwright and actress recounts her long rehabilitation after a terrible bicycle accident. Autobiographical story with a documentary approach — we hear in particular the chilling story of the first responders —, Titan Body (Survival Title) is a work that stirs, but, above all, that celebrates the strength of life and the incredible resilience of the human being. Have.

At the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, from September 6 to 24

Cabaret

At the Trident, the season opens with a large-scale show bringing together 20 actors and musicians. Indeed, the theater of Quebec offers nothing less than the famous musical Cabaret. In 1930s Berlin, a colorful crowd gathers at the Kit Kat Club to party the night away. But outside the walls of the nightclub, the world is about to topple under the rise of Nazism. A great classic of the genre, staged here by Bertrand Alain with an orchestra conducted by Sébastien Champagne.

At the Trident, from September 13 to October 8

A golden girl

In this play he wrote and directed, actor Sébastien David shares the stage with Amélie Dallaire to tell the story of four women who are the subject of so many profound transformations. From the girl in gold to the girl in pixels, the four destinies of these women will change radically. A work freely inspired by Metamorphoses of Ovid, but planted in “a grunge universe with tragicomic mutations” which reveals the plurality of humanity. To know: the piece had a remarkable passage in Sherbrooke when it was created in 2021.

At Salle Fred-Barry, Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, from September 6 to 24

Short interviews with exceptional women

To open its season, La Licorne welcomes in its intimate room this play by the Catalan author Joan Yago García (to whom we also owe Fairfly, presented in 2021). Here, five women from opposite backgrounds – a model, a pro-weapons from Nevada, a scientist dreaming of immortality – deliver themselves openly to the public. Their speech sometimes disturbs, but remains fully assumed. A text directed by Gabrielle Lessard, in which performers Ariane Bellavance-Fafard, Louise Cardinal, Nathalie Coupal, Daniel D’Amours, Charlotte Desbiens, Kariane Héroux-Danis and Tracy Marcelin tackle subjects as vast as homosexuality, self-medication and transageism.

At La Petite Licorne, from September 6 to 23

The Nicolas Rioux case

It’s the return of formulas 5 to 7 behind the scenes at Duceppe with the presentation of the one-act play The Nicolas Rioux case, by playwright Erika Mathieu from a production by Patrick R. Lacharité. In Saint-Victoire-de-l’Espérance, anger is brewing. The play programmed at the cultural center divides the residents. Some have read the text, others have not. But is it necessary to form an opinion? Six actors will defend this biting satire, which stings the proverbial popular wisdom in passing.

At the Théâtre Duceppe, from September 13 to 30