Stage echoes | Whitehorse, from the huts to the stage

Twice a month, The Press presents news from the world of theater, circus and dance, in Montreal and Quebec.

There have been Paul in Quebec which was the subject of a film. Red Ketchup who has recently become the hero of an animated series. But in the memory of a journalist who loves comics, never has a Quebec album been the subject of a theatrical adaptation. The ice is broken with the arrival of Whitehorse on the planks.

Before being a play and a comic strip published by Pow Pow, Whitehorse was first a short story, born from the fertile imagination of a CEGEP student named Samuel Cantin, who had just learned that he had one leg shorter than the other. Was he suffering from a new syndrome that was gradually transforming his body?

“This story served as my initial inspiration,” says the cartoonist. I brought the short story back after a few years to make a comic strip to which I added a love story. It’s a bit biographical. I wanted to talk about the artistic environment in which I often found myself. »

The comic strip tells the setbacks of Henri, a drifting writer, who is consumed with jealousy when he sees his girlfriend Laura participating in the next film by the libidinous filmmaker Sylvain Pastrami. As if that wasn’t enough, the D^D Von Strudel diagnosed him with an unprecedented illness: “turtle syndrome” which will make him deformed in two years…

This story, just offbeat enough, inspired actors Guillaume Laurin and Sébastien Tessier for an audition scene with Duceppe. “Instead of presenting Chekhov, we said to ourselves: we are adapting a scene from Whitehorse », says Sébastien Tessier, who plays Henri in the show. The idea hit the mark and as soon as their audition was over, Jean-Simon Traversy, co-artistic director at Duceppe, suggested they adapt the entire album.

Irreverent and annoying

Sébastien Tessier admits it bluntly: he fell in love at first sight while reading Whitehorse for the first time. “I fell in love with the humor of the dialogues, which are very theatrical,” explains the actor. It’s rare for me to laugh out loud while reading a book! »

How would he describe the cartoonist’s humor? “Wacky, raw, irreverent, touching, uncomfortable,” lists Sébastien Tessier.

The theatrical adaptation of Whitehorse was done by six hands, Samuel Cantin adding his pen to those of Sébastien Tessier and Guillaume Laurin. “When the guys contacted me, I said yes straight away. It’s like a dream come true for me,” says the designer. The team sought out a great enthusiast of absurd humor, Simon Lacroix, to take charge of the direction.

“His company Projet Bocal is one of the few in Quebec to focus on comedy. With him, we work on comic subtleties and the rhythm that is so important in comedy,” says Sébastien Tessier.

The latter, however, insists: the piece Whitehorse is not just a long series of gags.

Indeed, when Samuel Cantin is asked to name his influences for this album, he does not cite Monty Python or The heart has its reasons. “I really like romantic comedies like those by Woody Allen or Modern Romance by Albert Brooks. I have already been told that there is a relationship between Whitehorse And Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. Now, it’s my favorite book…”

Nevertheless, we laugh more at the works of Samuel Cantin than when reading Dostoyevsky. Now, what makes the cartoonist laugh?

With the comic duo Brick et Brack, which he created with François Ruel-Côté, Sébastien Tessier also actively practices uncomfortable humor. “It’s a whole different medium, though. We are in stand-up humor, concept humor. In Whitehorse, there is a story to follow, dialogues which serve as a link. »

Samuel Cantin denies having wanted to settle scores with the cinematographic world, which he knew relatively little about when he wrote his album. “But there is a gang phenomenon in the world of cinema which is fun to describe…” Moreover, the cartoonist is already working on the sequel to Whitehorse where the action takes place, this time, in the literary world.

There will undoubtedly be a few bruised egos along the way…

Whitehorse

Text by Samuel Cantin, Guillaume Laurin and Sébastien Tessier, directed by Simon Lacroix. With a cast of eight performers

Fifth Room of Place des ArtsFrom November 28 to December 16

Also on display

A voice to be loved: Maria Callas

Sophie Faucher and Marc Hervieux join forces to create a project on the life and career of Maria Callas. A show that marks the 100th^e Divina’s birth anniversary in 2023; the singer left us in 1977, at the age of 53. In A voice to be loved: Maria Callas, Sophie Faucher embodies this larger-than-life character. Marc Hervieux signs here his first production in the theater, in addition to playing Callas’s great friend, the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, with whom the diva made her final tour.

On tour, among others: at the Patriote in Sainte-Agathe, Saturday, November 25, at L’Étoile in Brossard, on November 29, and from December 7 to 9 at the Diamant, in Quebec.

Luc Boulanger, The Press

Last Frontier at the Stables

Launched in 2020, the collective theater project Last frontier, which addresses the “romanticization of the Yukon by people newly arrived in the territory,” is presented at the Stables this fall. The project underwent several stages of development between the Yukon and Quebec, before its creation last January, as part of the Pivot Festival in Whitehorse. Directed by Jade Barshee, Véro Lachance and Chloé Barshee, the show brings together French-speaking artists from several disciplines, from Quebec and the Yukon, who deliver testimonies and stories with the aim of demystifying – with humor, sensitivity and derision – “our romantic relationship with Nordicity”.

From November 30 to December 9, at the Théâtre Aux Écuries.

Luc Boulanger, The Press

Revised and corrected 2023

Gaza, Ukraine, the climate crisis… The year 2023 was a annus horribilis in many ways. To turn the page in style, what could be better than the traditional humorous review initiated by Denise Filiatrault, which will take the stage at the Rideau Vert starting next week. 2023 Revised and correctedunder the direction of Nathalie Lecompte, features five versatile performers: Pierre Brassard, Monika Pilon, Marie-Ève ​​Sansfaçon, without forgetting two veterans of this end-of-year review: Benoit Paquette and Marc St-Marin.

From November 29, at the Rideau Vert.

Luc Boulanger, The Press

White gold

La TOHU is currently welcoming the Cambodian troupe Phare Circus, who have come to present their show White gold. The gold in question here is in fact rice, a symbol of abundance in several cultures. The production, imagined as an apology for the life of Buddha, brings together on stage, in addition to the acrobats, three musicians and a painter. A 60-minute show, intended for ages 6 and up.

From November 22 to 1^er December at TOHU.

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Assembly Hall

The gestural and choreographic approach of Crystal Pite, an internationally renowned Canadian choreographer, is unique and fascinating, and her works never leave one indifferent. This is all the more true since she began a new creative cycle alongside playwright Jonathon Young, exploring in a completely unexpected way a genre that was thought to be over, dance theater. After Betroffenheint (2018) and Reviewer (2019), his company Kidd Pivot returns to Montreal with Assembly Hall, carried by a more than favorable rumor. On stage, a group of medieval game enthusiasts meet, but little by little, the line between reality and reconstruction blurs, while ancestral forces awaken.

From November 29 to December 2, at the Théâtre Maisonneuve.

Iris Gagnon-Paradis, The Press