Exit Just for Laughs. It is under the name of Double Agents that the Rozon sisters, Lucie and Luce, relaunched themselves in the artistic arena with Verdicta theatrical production starring Paul Doucet and Marie-Thérèse Fortin, who will perform four key arguments “that have moved Quebec forward”.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Luce Rozon speaks of a “duty of memory” in evoking this fall production led by artistic director Pierre Bernard, which will give the Quebec public the opportunity to hear the arguments of the pleadings of some of the most notable cases of the 50 last years.
“Because it’s happening in a court of law, you might think it’s going to be too technical, but no, it’s for everyone, and the pleadings are full of common sense, insists Luce Rozon. It makes us realize how far we have come in Quebec in recent years. These are decisions that make us live in a more inclusive and open society. »
It will discuss the trials of Henry Morgentaler, accused of performing illegal abortions in 1973; of the trial pleaded by Mr.e Anne-France Goldwater seeking recognition of same-sex marriage in 2001; legal pleadings before the coroner in the Joyce Echaquan case last year; and the trial of Basil Parasiris, in 2008, accused of the murder of a policeman, but who pleaded self-defense.
They are the documentary filmmakers Nathalie Roy (Fugitives, Stories to die for) and Yves Thériault (Behind the scenes at the palace) who made the choice of pleadings — depending on the documents available and the importance of the cases. A titanic job was carried out for a year and a half by the couple to reduce these pleadings from 3 to 5 hours to a concentrate of 15 or 20 minutes. Work which has moreover been approved by the original litigants — all living.
The director Michel-Maxime Legault, who spoke of a “necessary” production after the two years of the pandemic, had the challenge of creating the space for these pleadings.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DOUBLE PRODUCTIONS AGENTS
The director of VerdictMichel-Maxime Legault
“It’s a real challenge”, recognizes the actor and director who has been seen a lot in the theater, but who has also been busy in recent years mounting circus productions (Between sky and seaby Éloize) or opera (Il Trovatore).
But we bet a lot on the subject, and we hope to shake the viewer, to make him think. We will have in support projections, archive photos, audio extracts, it’s a bit of a historical journey.
Michel-Maxime Legault, director of Verdict
The two actors who will plead (alone) in turn, Paul Doucet and Marie-Thérèse Fortin, are preparing for it as for a solo show.
“It’s still a challenge to defend a 10-12 page text, alone on stage,” says Paul Doucet, who also wears a lawyer’s robe in the series. Indefensible (at VAT). In fact, the actor began his career on television in the series The big trials, in 1994, which also retraced the highlights of our judicial history. “I played the role of a fingerprint expert in the trial of Jacques Mesrine, he recalls. I had just graduated from UQAM…”
What impressed him in this project? “The importance of the subject, he replies, and its topicality, even today. »
Abortion, the Joyce Echaquan affair, we have the impression of doing useful work, because there are so many rights that are not acquired. And then the texts are written in such a precise way, there is incredible quality and intelligence in these pleadings, it’s a real house of cards, you can’t miss a single comma.
Paul Doucet
The same goes for actress Marie-Thérèse Fortin, who will plead the cause of abortion and same-sex marriage.
“Pleading as such can be theatrical,” she tells us. It’s about conveying the text, convincing, touching. There is also a quality of the language, the construction of the text, everything is calculated, there are many similarities with the theatre, you just have to find the right dose of combativeness to defend the text in front of an audience, to invest it with our energy, because it wasn’t written to be performed at the theater either. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DOUBLE PRODUCTIONS AGENTS
A scene from Verdict
The last cause, that of Basil Parasiris, will be pleaded in turn by the two lawyers and it is the public who will act as the jury (we will therefore not divulge the verdict here!). “It will give us the opportunity to create a two-way, confrontational dynamic,” Marie-Thérèse Fortin tells us. In the end, it is this same public that will decide the guilt (or not) of the accused.
“When we read the pleadings of the two lawyers, tell us Nathalie Roy and Yves Thériault, we said to ourselves after reading the text of the Crown: he is guilty. And after having read that of the defense: it is sure that he must be acquitted. So with the Rozon sisters, we said to ourselves that in this case, we would let the public choose. »
Of course, these four causes are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, there is no cause linked to the #metoo movement (Léa Clermont-Dion v. Michel Venne?), to the FLQ, to medical assistance in dying or to the protection of French… Verdict 2 or 3 is possible? Nathalie Roy and Yves Thériault are just waiting for the signal from the Rozon sisters. “We are in, replies Yves Thériault, it is certain that the courthouse is an inexhaustible source of subjects. It is an extraordinary theater of human life. »
Verdict. From October 6 at the Gesù. Then, on tour throughout Quebec from November 5 to May 10, 2023.