Stage echoes | Season of the Survivors

The Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (CTd’A) unveiled its programming for the 2022-2023 season on Monday. On the program: pieces “closer to the humanities”, the majority of which are survivors of the pandemic.

Stephanie Morin
The Press

“The coming season will be one of victories,” says Sylvain Bélanger, artistic director of the CTd’A. “It will be a very bright, very spring-like season, with artists who find themselves while being transformed, artists who carry an additional depth within them. The shows have also matured: the artists have carried them with them during all these months…”

During the two years of health crisis, the actors have certainly changed, but the public too, believes Sylvain Bélanger. “People buy into shows that are very authentic, very human. They need meditation and depth after the solitudes that have been experienced. »

Audrey Talbot, who signs the first piece of the season at Salle Michelle-Rossignol, is without doubt the perfect emblem of this 2022-2023 program. The playwright and performer recounts in Titan Body, Survival Title his long rehabilitation after a bicycle accident involving a heavy weight that nearly cost him his life. “Audrey is a survivor herself. She returns to the stage and her job after a series of hardships. The play will be presented from September 6 to 24.

This is the case of Cyclorama. From October 11 to November 5, the public is invited to an extraordinary theatrical experience by Laurence Dauphinais. The three-hour show begins at the Centaur Theater in Old Montreal and concludes at the CTd’A, rue Saint-Denis. Spectators will be moved by bus between the two 50-year-old institutions.

Clandestines, by the duo composed of Marie-Claude Saint-Laurent and Marie-Ève ​​Milot, will follow in January. This political thriller depicts, in a dystopian Canada, two women who clandestinely practice voluntary terminations of pregnancy. An opportunity to reflect on the current reopening of the debate on the right to abortion. From January 24 to February 11.

In April, it will be the turn of Daughters of St. Lawrence to go on stage, after a stint at the Théâtre de la Colline, in Paris. The text written by Rébecca Déraspe in collaboration with Annick Lefebvre, and directed by Alexia Bürger, is carried by 10 performers. Here, the characters come face to face with their own truth when they discover unclaimed corpses on the banks of the river. From April 4 to 29.

Note: the Michelle-Rossignol room will also host a special event, a ball orchestrated around the room Piss standing up without lifting her skirt, by Olivier Arteau. From March 2 to 11.

At the Jean-Claude-Germain room

Five pieces will also be presented next season in the intimate room of the CTd’A, starting with Which is a Basquiat, a project that Philippe Racine has been working on for many years. From September 13 to 1^er october.

The playwright Guillaume Corbeil will then offer his solo play Pacific Palisades, worn by Évelyne de la Chenelière, directed by Florent Siaud. The play is inspired by the true story of Jeffrey Alan Lash. The latter, who claimed to be half-man, half-extraterrestrial and said to work for the American secret service, made headlines in 2015 when he was found dead in his car… From October 18 to November 5.

Mauritius, by Anne-Marie Olivier (directed by Olivier Arteau), will take over from January 17 to February 4. Each evening, a volunteer will be called upon to share the stage with the playwright and performer. will follow Good looking guy, English Canadian Erin Shields. The piece is planted in an imaginary world dominated by women. With notably Cynthia Wu-Maheux and Gabriel Lemire. From March 14 to 1^er april.

Finally, the room I will come less often will end the season. Playwright and performer Camille Paré-Poirier recorded her nonagenarian grandmother for four years in order to gather the raw material for this intimate show. From April 25 to May 13.

Currently showing

Myth

Until May 14, Espace Go is hosting the hypnotizing show Mythe, by artist and musician Mykalle Bielinski. Five performers mingle their voices – in speech and song – in a polyphony with healing powers. Sitting on the floor or on chairs surrounding the stage, the public is invited to enter a timeless space to be lulled by cosmogonic stories, poems and sung incantations. A bilingual show that invites contemplation and from which we emerge soothed by so much beauty. With Émilie Monnet, Laurence Dauphinais, Florence Blain Mbaye, Elizabeth Lima and Mykalle Bielinski.

Until May 14, at Espace Go

Stephanie Morin, The Press

Crypto

Initially scheduled for the 2020 season of Danse Danse, here is that Crypto, the new creation of dancer and choreographer Guillaume Côté, will finally come to life on the stage of the Théâtre Maisonneuve. A highly talented performer, Guillaume Côté is principal dancer for the National Ballet of Canada and has performed on stage for the world’s greatest dance companies, including the Bolshoi Theatre, the Royal Ballet and the New York City Ballet. He is also artistic director of the Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur. With Cryptoit offers a sophisticated multimedia dance work, a contemporary choreographic narrative that draws its inspiration from a story written by Canadian-American librettist Royce Vavrek.

From May 11 to 14, at the Maisonneuve Theater

Iris Gagnon-Paradise, The Press

Consecrate

Consecrate for Rite of Spring. The creator of Unidentified Dancing Objects Katya Montaignac twists in her own way this classic raised to the rank of myth. Its mission: to build a new imagination around Stravinsky’s play, with seven street dancers and revisited music. On a stage circumscribed by the public in an arena, a community is formed, beginning a daring ritual, in an intimate proposal that questions being together and the very personal definition of the sacred.

From May 11 to 14, at the Agora de la danse

Iris Gagnon-Paradise, The Press

fondant

It’s the return of short plays at La Licorne, presented in a 5 to 7 formula, with a beer and a bite for only $21. From this Tuesday, in co-diffusion with La Manufacture, the Bistouri Theater offers fondant, a play where laughter hides the unpredictability of human nature, straddling comedy and psychological thriller, and which takes place in a neighborhood pastry shop. A text by Pascale Marineau. The staging is by Rose-Anne Déry, with Marianne Dansereau and Marc-André Thibault.

From May 3 to 20, at 5:30 p.m., in the rehearsal room of La Licorne

Luc Baker, The Press

Les Érotisseries: consensual erotic essays

Since 2005, the show Les Érotisseries: consensual erotic essays is meant to be a celebration of the flesh. An exploration of eroticism in the theater “with the aim of opening the eyes and the minds of the spectators and offering them a new vision concerning their own bodily and sexual well-being”, according to the press release of this production at the poster of the Théâtre Espace Libre. An intriguing performance at the crossroads of circus, burlesque, dance and improvisation. A bold proposal with Catherine Desjardins-Béland, Éliane Bonin and Marie-Christine Simoneau. The actor Stéphane Crête also collaborates as an artistic advisor.

From May 3 to 21, at Espace libre

Luc Baker, The Press