Marcel Pomerlo admits to having been surprised at first to be offered the direction of a summer play. But he quickly realized thatTo insanity was not a typical comedy where you would “slap your thighs from start to finish”. Created in Cowansville, the dramatic comedy indeed presents a character suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“That’s what interested me, he explains: a very delicate subject, very current and quite serious, but treated in a perspective that manages to get a lot of things across. There are very funny scenes because we are in the absurd. All cognitively degenerative diseases lead to situations that are both painful and comical. Because the memory goes in all directions, creates confusion. By learning about Alzheimer’s, Pomerlo understood, however, that the speeches that appear meaningless do not come out of nowhere: the patients evolve in another temporality.
This is the first, “very skilful” play by actor and impersonator Guy Richer, who has worn it for “decades” and also plays the protagonist: Charles, a “60-year-old teenager”, suddenly forced to caring for his declining mother. This party animal, who was a singer on cruise ships, initially had a hard time fulfilling this new role. The piece depicts its evolution. “It’s very beautiful, all the characters are at a bit of a crossroads, in a period of transition in their lives, explains the director. And there is another element that interested me a lot: we have a portrait of three women from different generations. The mother, Simone, becomes very close to the head nurse, played by Geneviève Brouillette. And she has a very strong bond with her granddaughter, played by Marilou Morin. »
As for Simone, who retains her strong personality, she is portrayed “beautifully well” by Francine Ruel. For the record, Richer had first asked the actress and author for advice, asking her to read her text on a father with Alzheimer’s. It was while discussing with her that the author realized that it would be more interesting to feminize her character. A role he then offered her. “She didn’t expect that at all! laughs the director.
song box
Another dimension ofTo insanity which seduced Marcel Pomerlo: the integration of sung imitations in the story. A form that he finds very original. “The music is very present, but it’s not a musical. The musical element has a function: to give a little happiness to this lady who is in cognitive loss, but also in complete loss of autonomy. »
Former owner of a cabaret-club with songs, Simone relives through the memory of these tunes that her son sings to her, by briefly personifying the artists she rubbed shoulders with. “Music sits cognitively in a very strong way. It’s a bit like Proust’s madeleine: as soon as she hears a note, she feels something. And Guy Richer is an extraordinary imitator. It’s amazing. But his imitations are always part of the story, we don’t make numbers out of them. Sometimes it’s orchestrated, sometimes a cappella. Imitations that are done by voice, almost without physical transformation.
We are really on a roller coaster. In each scene, we do not know in what state the character will be. And that’s interesting theatrically, but above all it has to be right!
Do these “memory bubbles”, as Pomerlo calls them, revive Simone’s real memories, or do these sometimes come from fantasies? The director plays with this possibility at certain times. “Among other things in his relationship with Charles Aznavour and Frank Sinatra, his two best. »
Raking wide, from the 1950s to 2000, the repertoire will allow you to hear Richard Desjardins as well as Charles Trenet, Joe Dassin as Gilles Vigneault or Tom Jones. Marcel Pomerlo enjoys this eclecticism, this evocation of an artistic memory. “For me, we are also doing a journey from a certain era which is not so far away. »
Truth
For the director as for the two co-authors of the play, it was important to remain truthful about the reactions of their sick protagonist. “We can have fun, laugh. But you have to know what you’re talking about. Guy Richer and Claude Montminy wanted everything said, from one stage, from one scene to another, to be fair in relation to Alzheimer’s. Even an association for Alzheimer’s in Granby has followed Guy a bit in his work,” says Marcel Pomerlo.
The director has read a lot on the subject. He wants to respect the different phases that patients go through. In the play, “we are really on a roller coaster. In each scene, we do not know in what state the character will be. And that’s interesting theatrically, but above all it has to be right! »
He also met caregivers. “I already knew some, too. They pretty much all say the same thing: it’s exhausting, and very emotionally demanding. Often, this disease develops over several years. Those I met said to me a lot: “It’s very hard to detach yourself, because you’re always worried about knowing what [la personne malade] can do.” “He himself had experienced this distressing situation with a relative suffering from Parkinson’s disease (which, “in the last stages, is very similar” to Alzheimer’s disease).
The creator wonders why we don’t talk more about this condition “very present in our society. Is it ageism? Because since he started working on the play, everyone he talks to about it reveals that they know someone affected by Alzheimer’s. By organizing auditions for the role of the granddaughter, Pomerlo was thus surprised to see how much the young actresses were concerned with the subject. “It was their uncle, the father of their boyfriend, their grandmother… It’s not that far, even for young women in their 30s. So it affects all of us in some way. »
The authors however wanted to remain in the register of comedy, although dramatic. “That was the challenge they gave themselves,” says the director. And for me, that’s a strength. The more serious side takes nothing away, on the contrary. And we have gone elsewhere, I think, in the so-called summer theatre. The standard has evolved a lot. “Remains that this marriage of a serious theme, humor and music is a bet. “Moments of emotion, you can’t do them by halves. You have to go all out. He can’t wait to see the public’s reaction.
And after 40 years of “very active practice”, this is what stimulates Marcel Pomerlo: “To do things that have not been explored to date. This is evidenced by his diversified track record: lately, he has put his stamp on a puppet show for adults (Loves by Geneviève Robitaille), a storytelling show (Like the apple of our eye) and was an associate director at the Opéra de Montréal on Il Trovatore of Verdi last year. “I did a lot, a lot of acting. And at a certain age, you say to yourself: “It has to be interesting, what they offer me.” »
The versatile creator is however far from having given up the game – we will see him next fall in The king dances at Denise-Pelletier. And the author of The Unforgotten or Marcel-Pomme-dans-the water has also finished writing a first novel: Almost nothing other tragedies.