“The Scriptarium”: debating around a consensus

A writing competition that allows young people from secondary school to see their creation brought to the stage by professionals, the Scriptarium is, each year, headed by a curator, a kind of mentor, who invites teenagers to reflect and write about a topic. This year, the delicate and important notion of justice was dissected by young authors under the watchful eye of the Honorable Louise Arbour.

It was not without effort that Monique Gosselin, co-artistic director of Théâtre Le clou, managed to convince the former judge of the Supreme Court of Canada to join this theatrical adventure. Not because the project did not interest her, but rather because, confides to us the lawyer on the telephone, she did not know anything about this kind of process: “I no longer remember exactly where I was when Monique Gosselin called me. If I was very busy or not too busy, but in any case, I told her frankly, I don’t know anything about it, young people, writing, but she was extremely convincing [rire]. So, I embarked, but without knowing exactly how it works, what exactly is this thing. And there, we will see the result on Thursday, ”she says.

Come to a consensus

Justice was therefore the starting point for this writing exercise, but more precisely, Mme Arbor wanted to make young people aware of the multiplicity of points of view and the links to be established with justice. “I feel, especially these days, that people easily get stuck in one position, and maybe we’ve lost the habit or the interest of worrying about other people’s opinions, consider it. So […]I wanted to try to get young people to possibly defend a position […]but always in a spirit of openness towards the opposite position or a completely different point of view […]. This is where I wanted to take them. To link the idea of ​​justice to the idea of ​​a multiplicity of points of view. »

It is thus, starting from this concept which requires openness and tolerance, that the young people wrote. Young people who, according to Louise Arbour, show great sensitivity to social justice. “It’s not surprising, but I find it very encouraging. They are very sensitive to exclusion, to the rejection of difference. I find it admirable, this sensitivity to marginalization and the fact that they really see it as an injustice,” she explains.

Moreover, despite an apparent openness of conscience and easy access to multiple sources of information, Louise Arbor underlines the omnipresence of skepticism in our societies. “People don’t know what to believe, because it’s nonsense. I think we saw that a lot politically under the presidency of Trump in the United States, where he was saying things that were patently untrue […]. He described the mainstream media – which have guarantees of credibility at least on the facts, they are not perfect – as fake. So, concerned about the lack of consensus around the facts, Louise Arbor wanted to steer young people down this path. “Yes, especially since I find that, in the contemporary world, we also have our own facts. That is even more worrying. The idea is to have a consensus on the reality, on the facts and there, we can have different opinions on the causes, the consequences, the strategies, the policies. But there, we live in a world where the supposedly objective reality no longer exists. It’s not what you know, it’s what you believe that becomes what you know. And that, I find that a little, in fact more than a little, alarming. »

[Les jeunes] are very sensitive to exclusion, to the rejection of difference. I find it admirable, this sensitivity to marginalization and the fact that they really see it as an injustice.

The importance of words

In all this desire to listen to the discourse of the other, to take an interest in their point of view in order to reach a consensus, there remains a fundamental element which is that of words, of the choice of words when the time to express his thoughts, his point of view, his way of seeing the world. “What I find really interesting about the whole Scriptarium approach is the connection between words and ideas. Sometimes we have ideas and we are looking for the words to say it. Other times, it’s the words that give us ideas. Quoting David Goudreault and his integral beast, the curator sees in him a master in this inspiring round trip. “He is a champion of words and ideas. Words that seek ideas, sometimes absurd, but so true. His character, who is disturbing, says at one point: “nobody is listening to me, I am a misunderstanding”. It’s strong, isn’t it?! ! For me, that’s the relationship between words and ideas. »

This tenuous relationship between these two poles of communication, the curator was able to see in the Scriptarium, in the process that led young people to play with writing, speech, ideas, to rework, rethink, rewrite, adjust all until a conclusive result. The work that is done between the impression, the idea that we can have of a cause, which can be different once it is put on paper, once the reflection is pushed further. “Get the impression, understand well what we want to say and express it well. An exercise that some adults should do from time to time, it would do everyone good! she concludes, smirking.

The Scriptarium

Texts: Tarek Beyaz, Maya Boissonneau, Chloé Brassard, Romane de Courville Nicol-Harvey, Sacha Fontaine, Lula Lepage, Rime Moussa and Mickaela Nduwimana. Guest curator: Louise Arbour. Director: Monique Gosselin. A production of Théâtre Le clou in collaboration with Théâtre Denise-Pelletier and Théâtre jeunesse les Gros Becs. Presented at Salle Fred-Barry from April 28 to May 6, then at Gros Becs from May 11 to 13.

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