The theatrical world and the military world seem a priori very far from each other. The two meet thanks to 5 bullets in the heada stage transposition of the book where Roxanne Bouchard, who collected testimonies from soldiers, recounts her foray into the Canadian army.
Nothing predisposed the novelist who declared herself antimilitarist to become the confidante of soldiers. By chance, in 2004, the one who was responsible for responding to emails received by the Charbonniers de l’enfer (her partner was a member of the group) began to communicate with a fan posted in Kabul. “It’s curiosity,” she said simply. This possibility of opening a dialogue with someone who thinks completely differently from me intrigued me. I realized that I wanted to understand. The military is part of our society, but they are never invited to my happy hours. They are nowhere where I find a space for dialogue. »
His long correspondence with Corporal Patrick Kègle produced a first book, In a minefield. Then, invited to share a beer with other soldiers after a conference given in a base, she ended up meeting around thirty, belonging to eight trades. It was by reading the resulting essay published by QuébecAmérique that François Bernier — who had produced the author’s first play, the delicious I still love you, presented at La Licorne, in 2019 — wanted to wear it on stage.
“I’m not very proud of this, but a soldier who returned from Afghanistan as an amputee committed suicide in my native village, and I naively said: but what happened to him? [faire] there too ? » says the director.
Widespread ignorance. “By encountering this humanity in 5 bullets in the head, I said to myself: “We need to reach out, so that civilians can hear these stories.” In my distant family, an uncle was in the military and we never talked about that. Even our questions were wrong [posées]. We don’t know how to talk about this. I wanted to narrow the gap between civil society and the military. »And to present the play in a theater frequented by several artists and “bobos”. “We are all in our echo chambers, we [connaît] little the Other who is very different from us. »
Roxanne Bouchard speaks of these meetings as a privilege. And the one who thought she was antimilitarist realized, thanks to these exchanges, that she was more of a pacifist. “Because in certain situations, I want the army to intervene. But not just anyhow. I want peace to be able to happen. Does being antimilitarist mean letting Russia invade Ukraine? I want soldiers who use their weapons intelligently. The shades are extremely delicate. And while chatting with these men [surtout], that’s a bit of what I was going to validate: who is my army? How’s it going ? And how do they come back with these memories? »
Which doesn’t mean it was always easy. ” I had to fun with a guy, I find him friendly, then he tells me that he killed lots of people with a machine gun, the novelist recalls. Am I still comfortable? It’s hard because it comes into our conflicts of values. »
His colleague reminds us that it is we, the citizens, who send this soldier there, when we vote for federal governments. “He does what we ask of him. The problem is that when he comes back, you wonder why he went there. » In short, we take responsibility for this mission. “The soldiers talk to me a lot about the way people come into contact with them,” reports François Bernier. Often we are clumsy. And we’re going to talk about it like a hunting trip. While they went to work. And defend a certain democracy. They had convictions. »
The soldiers opened up a lot to Roxanne Bouchard: “I couldn’t believe everything they told me. » Meeting them almost always in groups, where they ended up talking about their memories among themselves, helped to free up speech. “And I also think there’s a way to do it. I realized that what I came to ask them was “tell me about the worst moments of your life”. It takes very delicate keys to enter these worlds. »
It is this “great feeling of respect” towards the soldiers that he felt in his books that the director wants to recreate with the play. “We involve them in creation. They feed her. Because we say to ourselves: “If you are not there, do we really have the right to speak for you? And are you comfortable?” » Each performance will in principle be followed by discussions with soldiers. But the production gives them the freedom not to present themselves, if this reminder of their experience awakens trauma.
Guests will always include a participant in the harrowing 2009 mission in Afghanistan, where soldiers lost their lives. “It was the first offensive rotation [du Canada] since the Korean War, explains the author. They often returned very traumatized. And Afghanistan is the land of mines. They were always hypervigilant for potential mines. »
Canadian soldiers are not allowed to speak to journalists, but Valcartier’s staff gave him carte blanche to speak with these veterans from 2009. Why? She talks about the media tour ofIn a minefield, with Patrick Kègle. “The army said to itself: there is a little corporal who is going to Everybody talks about it and who looks good, who makes people laugh. It gives good press to the army. » The author even participated in military exercises. “Actually, that was part of the conditions: you can talk to whoever you want, but see what it’s like. »
“We didn’t want to make a pro-army manifesto,” his colleague intervenes. The idea was really to talk about the traumas of war, to defend peace. That’s the gamble we take. »
Invasion
5 bullets in the head recreates these meetings between Roxanne Bouchard and soldiers. A very human story: in the end, “we laugh or cry with them”. We follow the journey of an alter ego of the novelist (Sylvie De Morais). The “documented” theater piece – rather than documentary – is inspired by reality “as close as possible”, but without sticking to verbatim, describes François Bernier.
The director also wanted to illustrate how the author is gradually invaded by their stories. “She starts hallucinating them. When she listens to her recordings again, they begin to invade her space, to leave traces in her home. Like sand falling from the ceiling. I have the impression that once we touch on this sensitive matter, we cannot go back. » Consciousness remains. According to him, this is evidenced by the commitment of his creative team, including the “fiery” cast (Philippe Cousineau, Maxim Gaudette, Frédéric Millaire Zouvi, Éric Robidoux, Joakim Robillard, Lou Vincent-Desrosiers, Éric Vega).
“These stories transform us,” confirms Roxanne Bouchard. She herself was affected by these sometimes horrible testimonies. “First, it shook my beliefs. And I started having nightmares. A psychologist who works to counter suicide among the military, Marc-André Dufour, spoke to me about vicarious syndrome: when we are told stories of repeated violent deaths. In the brain, we have mirror cells, which imitate the emotions of others. » He strongly advised him to take a step back so as not to become a victim of “post-traumatic syndrome through empathy”.
Through this vast project, the designer will have understood that pacifism is not just about wanting peace in the world. “It’s easy to see guys with tribal tattoos and shaved heads and judge them. Especially if they make racist or violent speeches. It’s much more difficult to approach them, to try to open a dialogue, to understand what they have experienced. Pacifism is also wanting to be at peace with others, and to exchange. To have pacifism, I would say, on a daily basis. »