Christine Beaulieu, with her piece I like Hydro, crisscrossed Quebec, embracing the territory and harnessing our hearts to explore our relationship with Hydro-Québec. Six years after its first performance, the adventure played its final chapter last year, but Christine Beaulieu had not said her last word.
Invited by architect Pierre Thibault to create carte blanche in the heart of the Jardins de Métis, the author chose to take inspiration from salmon and their journey up the Mitis River. Presented during the summers of 2021 and 2022, his piece Mitis salmon was adapted into an album, with the help of illustrator Caroline Lavergne.
We are immediately invited onto the stage of the show, whose scenography, apparently simple, is extremely effective. Set on a veranda transformed into a dock, the piece takes place in the water. We are a salmon. Not yet, to tell the truth: “In the belly of our mother salmon who returned to where she was born, in her native river, to spawn. She is looking for the best place to drop us off. »
We go up the Mitis River to the spawning ground, where our mother lays her eggs, 8000 in total. Together, we face the challenges that decimate us – animal and human predation, winter conditions, in particular -, undergoing numerous transformations: from eggs to fry, to parr, to smolts, to adult salmon.
The salmon’s journey is perilous, “but a natural balance has been maintained from one millennium to the next.” This was, however, before humans settled in increasing numbers on the banks of the Mitis. From 1818, their environment gradually changed until the erection, in 1922, then in 1947, of two hydroelectric power stations which alienated their reproduction pattern. The presence of salmon in the Mitis does not stop there, however, having some amazing surprises in store for us.
Become alive again
At the confluence of documentary and poetry, the tone recalls that of I like Hydro. The articulation of the reflection is ingenious, inviting us to heartbreaking choices that force empathy. Pulling the strings of mechanisms that allow young people to understand, the album is overwhelming: “Salmon cannot put on a show and imagine itself in the shoes of a human. But we can. »
Caroline Lavergne’s illustrations are magnificent and captivating, but beyond their aesthetic qualities, they materialize theatricality, revealing essential scenes by embodying them before our eyes. Let us highlight in passing its sadly ironic representation of a cycle of life asphyxiated by a capitalist society, a true anthology piece.
Mitis salmon is a matter of adaptation. A play put into an album, it bears witness to ecosystems as beautiful as they are fragile, forced to adapt. Salmon or humans, we are at a crossroads. What journey will we be able to imagine?