The co-founder of Usine C, Danièle de Fontenay, will leave the general and artistic direction of the Montreal theater at the end of the artistic season, has learned The duty. She had been playing this role for over 25 years. Usine C, designed and built to house the Carbone 14 company, which ultimately did not use much, was one of the first “medium-sized” rooms focused on multidisciplinary arts in Montreal. Returns to the future, and the past, of this theater.
We have seen, over the years, at Usine C, as critic or spectator, pearls: Denis Lavant in The night just before the forests, Isabelle Huppert in 4.48 Psychosis. We discovered the shows of the Greek Dimitris Papaioannou, the Kiss & cry by Michèle Anne De Mey and Jaco Van Dormael, the works of choreographers Meg Stuart, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker or a Jan Fabre then still frequentable. From here, we followed a Louise Lecavalier who became a choreographer, or a Robert Lepage – do you know?
In the small room, we were able to see little gems of research and experimentation, in the late TempsImages festival (literally breaking notes by Myriam Bleau) or in the still current Actoral (fascinating Alexander Vantournhout). This list of shows and artists, from here and from Europe, could go on for a long time.
However, this was not the initial project of Usine C. Not quite. Born a little “like a girl from the free space”, illustrious Danièle de Fontenay, Usine C was to be the home of the company Carbone 14, then at the zenith of creation – and not only from Quebec. This Space which had inspired her was managed for his part by a Jean-Pierre Ronfard seeking in organizations a maximum flexibility to give, also, the maximum freedom to the creators. “My encounter with the work of Carbone 14 was decisive, remembers M.me from Fontenay. There has been a bond over 30 years, with work and with [le metteur en scène] Gilles Maheu, who was extraordinary. »Collaborator, production manager, touring agent, production manager, administrator, Danièle de Fontenay will be, in various ways, Mr. Maheu’s right-hand man.
This dormitory that awakens
The former company of the Children of Heaven then stirred up all the creative cages, if only by mixing dance and theater, at the time still kept in small huts and different stages. We do not know then that parts like The rail (1984, with “30 tons of earth and a real CN rail!”, Laughs Mr.me de Fontenay) and Hamlet-machine (1987) are only precursors of a Dormitory (1988) which will destroy all the barracks, here and abroad.
The place, Usine C, was conceived in 1992 as a nest of creation, “designed around the working time of Carbon 14”. “I had the initial responsibility of animating the place outside the beaches occupied by Carbone 14, in distribution and creation, continues the director. A pluri program, open to all disciplines in the performing arts, with a national and international program linked to the DNA of Carbone 14, which was very popular. “
“We wanted to make reciprocity, we had the chance to see shows elsewhere that nobody saw in Montreal, and that was too bad,” she recalls. In 1993 and 1994, Mme de Fontenay is in charge of the construction and renovations of the former jam factory of the Société Alphonse Raymond, on petite avenue Lalonde in the center-south of the metropolis.
The opening took place in 1995, celebrated by Twenty years, from Carbon 14. The room is fully modular, a real “black box” of all possibilities, with 450 seats. “We forget it, but there was no intermediate scene in Montreal at the time; as large or small. »However, Gilles Maheu will only continue the creations for Carbone 14 for another eight years, and will not return to them afterwards. The Library where my death was my childhood (2003). “It disrupted the initial project, we had to adapt it. It was not possible to claim that Carbone 14 was looking for an artistic director, the company was too closely linked to Gilles Maheu. It was an unexpected period, and, yes, a bit difficult, ”admits Mr.me from Fontenay.
Reinvent yourself, again
Two decades later, Usine C is preparing for a new redefinition. “We can no longer think of the world in quite the same way after what has just happened”, reflects Danièle de Fontenay. “There are a lot of reflections to be carried out for the continuation of the work. You have to ask yourself the questions of tours, linked to the pandemic as much as to global warming and ecology, for example, among all the new perspectives to think about. It is a time of challenges, and exciting too. New eyes are going to be quite helpful. “
“The conditions for handing over the reins are met,” continues Mr.me de Fontenay, they are ideal: we went through this pandemic filth, we took the opportunity to refurbish the house, it is in good financial health, we have new equipment, activities have resumed, we are out of the doldrums, it is the right time. “
And for Danièle de Fontenay? Retirement, or future projects? A bit of both. Ideas around the performing arts and the environment, she mentions if we insist. “The word ‘retirement’, I am told that in Spanish it translates to ‘jubilation’, which I find more sympathetic. For that, I am absolutely ready, ”she concludes with a laugh. The position to be filled at Usine C will be officially posted in the coming weeks.