Courthouse regulars will tell you that sad comedies and great dramas are played out every day in the courtrooms where humanity is often harmed. If several trials are of little interest to the majority, others have the power to change the course of history.
Posted at 3:22 p.m.
It is to some of these landmark trials for Quebec society that Verdicttheatrical show presented in Montreal then on tour in Quebec until the fall of 2023.
The principle behind this production imagined by two documentarians and authors passionate about judicial history, Nathalie Roy and Yves Thériault, is very simple, but nevertheless brilliant, namely recreating on stage the great pleadings that have marked our courts. The authors chose three cases that shook Quebec: the lawsuit against Dr.r Henry Morgentaler in 1973 for illegal abortions, the trial to have same-sex marriage rights recognized in 2001 and the coroner’s public inquest into the death of Joyce Echaquan at the Joliette hospital in 2020.
A fourth case is added to close the show. We will come back to it.
Let those who remember Great Trials, presented on TVA in the 1990s, are immediately mistaken. We are not dealing here with vast historical reconstructions: no decor, no costume, no accessories. And no one to embody witness X or expert Y. The stage is entirely occupied by two lawyers in togas played by two actors who must know how to handle the verb with aplomb, because everything here rests on their shoulders.
PHOTO PAUL DUCHARME, PROVIDED BY DOUBLE AGENTS
Paul Doucet embodies in turn the lawyers Jean-François Arteau and Jacques Larochelle.
However, the production hit the mark by choosing Marie-Thérèse Fortin and Paul Doucet, two performers capable of moving us, making us laugh and, above all, convincing us of the merits of their speech, without using no artifice, except for a sidelong glance at the opposing party, an eyebrow raised by doubt, a judiciously supported pause…
The art of public speaking as practiced by lawyers during pleadings is a high-flying exercise, where the smallest detail can tilt a jury’s decision. To do them justice, two performers of very high caliber were needed…
In this sense, Verdict is a fascinating show, which makes us discover great litigants very lively, whose name does not mean much to ordinary mortals: Me Jacques Larochelle, M.e Claude-Armand Sheppard, M.e Jean-Francois Arteau. Only exception: Me Anne-France Goldwater, well known to the general public, whom Marie-Thérèse Fortin knew how to personify with just enough color, but without lapsing into caricature. The words used by these lawyers remained the same as they moved from the courthouse to the stage. The remarks have been condensed, but the essence of each pleading has been kept.
The judicious choice of the causes presented is also to be underlined. If the first two – whose outcome is known – make us appreciate the path traveled by Quebec society for 50 years, the Joyce Echaquan affair puts the magnifying glass on the injustices that still persist today. This is by far the most difficult argument to hear, the most stirring. The theater is there in particular to raise the dust that too often arises on our collective conscience. In this sense, Verdict is undoubtedly a theatrical material that forces reflection.
The show ends with a cause that is more of a news item, that of a man accused in 2008 of the murder of a police officer during an intervention by the police at his home. Here, the public is entitled to the pleadings of the crown and the defense in this case where nothing is all white or all black. Is the accused guilty? Was he acting in self-defense? It will be up to the public to decide.
The exercise, while very entertaining, also serves to remind us how heavy the role of juror is. In Verdict, no one is imprisoned or released when the curtain falls. It’s still theatre. Very good theatre, even.
Verdict
Adapted by Nathalie Roy and Yves Thériault, directed by Michel-Maxime Legault.
With Marie-Thérèse Fortin and Paul Doucet.
At the Gesù in Montreal and on tour in several cities in Quebec.