The TNM launches a daring production on its boards. A free adaptation of Novel by Monsieur Molièrea work centered on the life of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière, written in 1933 by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, remixed here by Louis-Dominique Lavigne.
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The biographical novel by Bulgakov, who admired Molière (and no doubt identified a lot with him), was blacklisted by Stalin’s regime, which appreciated him despite everything, we learn. But it was never published during his lifetime.
The manuscript had been submitted in the early 1930s to the managers of the “Lives of Remarkable People” collection, founded by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky, but it had been rejected for its lack of orthodoxy… It contained “transparent allusions to Soviet life” and yet another denunciation of the regime through the work of Molière. It took until 1962, 22 years after Bulgakov’s death, for the novel to finally be published in its entirety.
Louis-Dominique Lavigne took it over and brought it up to date, featuring these two sacred monsters of literature, Russian and French, separated by almost three centuries, with the amusing idea of having them talk to each other.
In fact, it is as if Bulgakov were in dialogue with the characters of his novel — Madeleine Béjart, Armande Béjart (his daughter), La Grange, Scaramouche, etc. There are also some writers from the time of Molière: Racine, Corneille, La Fontaine, it’s quite entertaining.
In this re-reading of Novel by Monsieur MolièreJean-François Casabonne embodies Mikhail Boulgakov, while Éric Robidoux takes on the costume of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin.
They are two writers born at different times, but under fairly restrictive regimes. Molière is subject to the king; Bulgakov is trapped in Stalin’s regime, and the two characters try to unblock all this oppression. They come together in this desire to free themselves from a yoke.
Jean-Francois Casabonne
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Jean-François Casabonne will play the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov.
Like Bulgakov, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin also had to deal with censorship. Many of his plays had to be rewritten — like his Tartuffe. “We must not forget that he worked under the aegis of religion and the monarchy, which he found a way to make fun of in his plays,” says Éric Robidoux. He had to please all sorts of dogmas and unwritten laws. »
The two writers have also lived their whole lives in very precarious conditions. Bulgakov, who gave up medicine to devote himself to writing, lived in poverty. “Bulgakov, I play him as if each breath were for him a matter of life or death,” says Jean-François Casabonne. Because despite this financial precariousness, his depression and his health problems, he had an incredible strength of character. He was at the end of his Everest. »
Molière fascinates Éric Robidoux as much with his perseverance. “He never gave up! Even sick, he wanted to play so that the stage technicians could have their salaries. »
His drama is that he wanted to do tragedies, but these had little or no success. So he wrote pranks, but with a lot of innuendo…
Through his comedies, Molière depicted his time, with vigor and fury, and he managed despite everything to depict the false devotees, the political negotiations, the false marquises, etc., so this satire joins them, because they both attempted to make diversions in their works for publication.
Eric Robidoux
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Éric Robidoux will play the character of Molière over the next month at the TNM.
In his novel, Bulgakov, born in Kyiv, writes: “Molière helps me to remain alive in spite of everything, to believe in the satirical force of my work and in its poetic utility. To its power of resistance and enchantment. »
This (real) dialogue between the two men, despite the almost three centuries that separate them, moves Jean-François Casabonne. “Louis-Dominique wrote: “And already tomorrow, here, the memory that enriches the future extends in us on the boards of an immortal theater.” It is the link of time. There was Molière, there is Boulgakov, there is Louis-Dominique Lavigne, there may be someone else, it’s transmission. Even as an actor, it is a gesture of extraordinary humility and power. »
Casabonne goes further. “The adaptation of Louis-Dominique Lavigne in Quebec is a revolutionary act. He also writes in his play: “In the current USSR where everything is censorship and suspicion, exercising the profession of satirist is a revolutionary act.” »
The two actors also say they are very inspired to play this text directed by Lorraine Pintal, who has drawn a parallel between “two pasts that rub shoulders in the present”. Casabonne and Robidoux will be surrounded by 11 actors, including Jean Marchand, Rachel Graton, Benoît Drouin-Germain and Karine Gonthier-Hyndman.
“With this troupe of the TNM, which echoes that of Molière, we carry this desire to free the prison of well-meaning and to be watchdogs of non-censorship, concludes Jean-François Casabonne. Even after reading the text, something continues in our memory, like a common quest to be free. »
Monsieur Molière’s novel. At the TNM from November 8 to December 3.