Posted at 1:00 p.m.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
For the first time at the TNM, Clara Prévost (four girls in Denise-Pelletier last spring) plays one of the main roles, Viola, a young woman who must pretend to be a boy in order to ensure her survival. “I’ve had plenty of great roles elsewhere, but Viola is a wonderful character. It carries the drama, in the background. In Shakespeare, women often act in the background. Viola, she makes declarations of love, she is intense, honest, go-getter. »
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
In love, no one is an island. Following this observation, Frédéric Bélanger uses the character of Feste, played by Benoît McGinnis, to make him “the director or puppeteer of that night. To love, you have to love yourself and Feste assumes himself totally in what he is. He becomes the liberator of the other characters and is therefore present throughout the show. One can even wonder if each character would not be a facet of himself”.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
The impressive scenography, signed Francis Farley-Lemieux, includes a giant video screen and a wall that is half vertical rocks, half pipe organ with a beach in the foreground. “I wanted something organic,” says Frédéric Bélanger. When I saw the movie Dunes by Denis Villeneuve, the scene where Timothée Chalamet is walking on the beach, I knew that was what I was looking for. The story takes place between the palaces of Olivia and Orsino in front of the immensity of the sea.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Sarah Balleux made the costumes that recall the Elizabethan era without however copying it. “It’s like a haute couture collection, a bit like Alexander McQueen with baggy pleated pants, specifies Frédéric Bélanger, in a tight color palette: gray, black, silver and gold. In the photo, Olivia (Marie-Pier Labrecque) and Maria (Kathleen Fortin).
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
The music is important in this version of Twelfth night. Three musician-actors — Guido Del Fabbro (Curio), Adrien Bletton (Valentin) and Jean-Philippe Perras (Orsino) — play live on stage. “I come from pop culture, emphasizes Frédéric Bélanger. My mother listened to Dalida and Céline Dion at home. I grew up with it. It’s a boy band like the Jonas Brothers that we created and Orsino is the star. »
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Frédéric Bélanger is not at his first barbecue on a vast theater stage like that of the TNM. “I rode my first show at 26 years old by mistake, that’s why my company is called Advienne que peut. I had to perform in the show Amorous spite by Molière, but we lost the director. Benoît McGinnis, who was in the same cohort as me at the National Theater School, suggested I do it. And I continued. »