Christian Lapointe has long frequented the work of British playwright Martin Crimp. He has already staged two of his plays and often taught it to his theater students. The play that the director is preparing to present at the Prospero Theater is perhaps, he says, the most frightening of all.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
“This piece is a monster,” says Christian Lapointe about When We’ve Tortured Ourselves Enough – Twelve Variations on Pamela by Samuel Richardson, of which he also signed the translation. “In my entire career, this is one of the most difficult pieces I have had to do. It’s a play that can mistreat us, that can pollute us, by tackling very tough subjects. »
This piece is inspired by an epistolary novel published in 1740, entitled Pamela or rewarded virtue, which is considered a classic of Anglo-Saxon literature. People also believe that this sulphurous text would have inspired Dangerous relationshipsChoderlos de Laclos, and Justineby Sadé.
Here, a rich man tries to seduce his young servant. As she refuses his advances, the man kidnaps her, sequesters her… to offer her a marriage contract in good and due form. That she will eventually accept.
Martin Crimp was able to find in this novel of manners a rich vein to tackle, in 12 scenes, difficult and terribly topical subjects: trivialization of the culture of rape, violence of the formatted roles that each receives according to his X or Y chromosome, (in ) gender equality, brutality of desire…
When it premiered in London in 2019, the play caused quite a stir, and not just because the lead actress was a certain Cate Blanchett, who had chosen this singular show to make a comeback on stage.
PHOTO CLAIRE RENAUD, PROVIDED BY PROSPERO THEATER
Emmanuel Schwartz and Céline Bonnier hold the main roles in the play When we’ve tortured ourselves enough.
To interpret the man and the woman who engage in a “battle of titans”, Christian Lapointe has surrounded himself with two high-level performers, namely Emmanuel Schwartz and Céline Bonnier. Lise Castonguay and Laura Côté-Bilodeau complete the cast.
Ordinary violence according to Crimp
“I like the work of Martin Crimp, because with him there is no delay between thought and speech. It gives to hear the thought which is done live. In When we’ve tortured ourselves enough, the playwright makes marvelous use of the game of mirrors that is theatre. He evokes violence, describes it and decries it, in a very powerful language, without there ever being any physical violence on stage. It’s as if he allowed us to see the world with a magnifying glass to make us realize how violence is present in our lives. In particular the toxicity of the heteronormative system, which grants us social roles of man or woman from birth, in a patriarchal system which confines us. »
“Crimp has a unique way of dissecting this violence,” continues the director. “It’s not violence that entertains, it’s violence that confronts us. »
His play can damage those who watch and listen to it, but we must not forget that the violence that exists outside the theater is much worse… and that it takes place in broad daylight.
Christian Lapointe
The director decided to camp the play in a very theatrical setting, signed Claire Renaud. It is not insignificant. “I chose to place the play in a context where the man and the woman become a director and an actress. It allows you to think about what you can accept or not to play, what you can or cannot ask of a performer. I know that this violence exists in movie studios, rehearsal rooms…”
An adaptation of an 18th century noveland century, which sees itself becoming – in particular! – a critique of a sometimes toxic artistic milieu… When Crimp meets Lapointe, the interplay of mirrors becomes multiple, endlessly reflecting the shortcomings of a society that the two men prefer to look at sideways.