We discovered the Scottish Frances Poet thanks to Madra, presented in spring 2019. This psychological thriller described the paranoid drift of a mother after an incident that could have put her son in danger. While this production is preparing to be resumed in Quebec (at the Périscope, in mid-November), the Théâtre Bistouri is staging another play by Poet at La Licorne, this time in the friendly 5 à 7 format.
Contemporary fears and anxieties, as well as the tendency of humans to veer into the irrational, visibly provide fertile ground for the playwright. Problems that the pandemic and the resulting isolation will not have alleviated. Created in 2022, The premonitions of Mikaël Morneau thus seems to draw on the anxiety-provoking climate of recent years, perhaps even on the conspiracy wave, with its tendency to see signs everywhere and its paranoid contagion.
Mikaël has not left his house since confinement. Not even to attend the funeral of his best friend’s mother, who is furious. But a very agitated Mikaël reveals to Éliane that he receives visions in his dreams, which are said to be prophetic. This Nostradamus of the 21ste century exhibits as proof several drawings scribbled from these images, which he interprets with great liberality. (The contrast between these barbos clumsy and the seriousness of their author contributes to the humor of the story.) Frightened by premonitions of a coming catastrophe, he asks his friend to contact a former friend, now an MP, in order to warn the Prime Minister of Canada . Éliane initially greets his claims with the expected skepticism. But what if it was true?…
Mixing the intimate and the social, The premonitions of Mikaël Morneau addresses mental health, but also mourning and the need for shared ritual. Frances Poet succeeds in combining gravity and humor in this well-crafted one-hour text. A play that amuses, while accurately depicting the relationship between the two friends, which is at the heart of the story.
The chemistry operates within this contrasting pair in the show skillfully directed by Clara Prévost, who brought together good performers. The very convincing Olivier Barrette gives a palpable excitement to the title role. Very natural, Rose-Anne Déry goes through various emotions with intensity. And Victoria Diamond only arrives at the end, but she offers a memorable number, first of all with her eloquent facial expressions, during a long silence. Then, the actress masters a delicious exercise in dichotomy between the trivial gestures of her character and her speech, inspired by the wise philosopher Epictetus.
I have a feeling that the Théâtre Bistouri has not finished with the work of Frances Poet. A prediction all the easier to make since, encountered during the premiere, its director Marc-André Thibault revealed a co-writing project with the playwright…