We thought they were dead and buried since 2014. Against all odds, here they are again. Urban Tales, these evenings filled with crude words – think sex, religion and rock and roll – return to the bill for five performances.
This news “does not announce a resurrection, because they were not dead, but a return”, warns Yvan Bienvenue from the outset, instigator of these tales for adults which have brought rain and shine throughout more than two decades at La Licorne. The event moves to the other side of Papineau Avenue, to La Tulipe cabaret, starting Tuesday.
“It’s a bit of a test. It will depend on the public response. We are used to full rooms, but we are so last minute. Fingers crossed that something happens. The people who come will have fun. They will laugh and they will be moved,” says the founder of Théâtre Urbi et Orbi productions, who has lost none of his verve, even if we have seen him less in recent years.
Yvan Bienvenue had given up his famous Urban tales after the 2014 edition. He wanted to move on — even if his Urban Tales continued for a while in English at the Centaur Theater. In 2015 he launched the Montreal fairs, stories anchored each year in a different district of the island. Then there was the pandemic. Pausing all cultural activities. Yvan Bienvenue had health problems.
He got back into shape. And the desire to bring a little madness back into Montreal evenings. By a combination of circumstances, a room became available at the last minute for a reissue of the Urban tales. Too late to solicit authors: the poet, playwright and storyteller has republished six of his texts, some of which have been brought up to date.
Live in the night
“It’s an anthology of my tales. These are representative moments of the genre, but also of my practice,” says Mr. Bienvenue to Duty.
The public will be entitled to revisited versions (or not) of texts like Gravy Metal, Sano Mado, Last-ass, Full ass, Madame Butterfly, and others. We guess that these stories smell of sweat, cigarette smoke or perfume cheap, against the backdrop of a dark room and dusty carpet. The characters live at night. Some find themselves right in the middle party Christmas, because the Urban tales usually arrive around the holiday season.
Yvan Bienvenue claims to have rounded certain angles of his tales, which were a little squarer in the past. Perhaps because at 61, the artist has calmed down a little. Maybe. We’ll have to see.
“The city does not only belong to the world underground, rock and roll or leather coats, he says. Yes, bar life, night life, but at some point, it’s not just the heavy metalthere is also the heavy smooth. »
One thing is certain, Bienvenue and its guests have shaken up the cage in the past. They have sometimes offended chaste ears or sensitive souls. Fabien Cloutier brought to life in an urban tale his character of a rough-hewn Beauceron who arrives in Montreal and is surprised to come across “big fefis dressed in leather”.
Diversity and humanism
Today’s context lends itself less to statements like that, recognizes Yvan Bienvenue, even if Cloutier was simply playing a role with this character, who was reincarnated in Scotlandtownhis first play.
“People come from all over Montreal. There is even more diversity today than there was then. THE Urban talesit’s the meeting with the other: we don’t have the same life, but we are the same,” says Yvan Bienvenue.
“My approach is humanist. I denounced misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, racism and violence against women,” he recalls, as if to defend himself in advance from any misunderstanding that could arise during the five performances of the Tales at La Tulipe.
The creator and storyteller claims “total freedom”, which includes that of using words reflecting the truth of the characters.