Specializing in podcasting, Transistor Media is making the leap into a theatrical production. The Outaouais box has always been interested in stage forms, notes its co-founder Julien Morissette. “As audio fiction is not a widely exploited territory in Quebec or in the Canadian Francophonie, we often found ourselves working in theater contexts. »
Created in Ottawa in March 2023, at the invitation of the National Arts Centre, the immersive Where the dust settles aimed to reproduce the warm intimacy of the audio, radio medium, to envelop the audience in a captivating and gentle experience. And after seeing the show, Sylvain Bélanger, the artistic director of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (CTD’A), which broadcasts the play, “told us: we are not used to this gentleness at the theater,” reports Morissette.
Where the dust settles amalgamates the artistic practices of its two creators, the director and designer of digital audio works as well as the author Karina Pawlikowski, from the visual arts and close to performance. Collaborators often anchor their joint writing projects in autofiction. This time, they were inspired by their separation, after 12 years of living together. “We decided to work from the creation of the couple and its deconstruction, to reflect on notions linked to intimacy and parenthood,” she explains. To the domestic space too: how we transform our homes, how we reclaim places, objects,” after a breakup. In addition to the emotional aspect, the situation also allows us to think about “how the family, school and economic culture relies a lot on the idea of the couple,” adds Morissette.
Interviewed by telephone from Gatineau, the duo wanted to address the evolution of this relationship without being oversimplified. Like in his podcast Extraordinary lovesbroadcast on Ohdio, there is “a questioning of the norms which govern emotional, relational and family life”, explains Pawlikowski. “To what extent is a separation perceived negatively in the public eye? For us, it was something very revealing and which built us to become better people, better parents. So, it’s really about trying to see what the gain and loss are in this gesture. It is also interesting to think about what a couple is, and a couple of parents too. If we decide to live separately, if we accept the fact that we are no longer romantic partners, can we become partners in other areas of our lives? So, what can we keep? »
They themselves, who have not stopped collaborating on an artistic level, now live in two “extremely close” houses. “Our children have access to more parents, to more parental models in their inner circle. We are still together often, we still take a lot of trips with our respective romantic partners together. » For the designer, this enlargement of the family unit is “still of great beauty”.
The tandem therefore offers a different, “brighter” vision, which relates more to the transformation, to the breakdown of a couple. Particularly in relation to its representation in popular culture and fiction. “We often talked about the film Marriage Storywhich is very dramatic, says Julien Morissette. It’s the antithesis of the work we tried to build. We tried to put forward perhaps more nuanced comments. But it wouldn’t necessarily make a good drama series to say “there were lots of questions, reflections and gentleness”. » Conversely, this is what the form they have chosen allows.
Studio and living room
Since the theatrical context allowed it, with its captive audience and much more sustained attention than in front of a podcast, the creators opted for a more poetic and exploratory form than a classic narrative structure: a series of paintings which respond to each other. Karina Pawlikowski compares the show to “an exhibition of different paintings in which the spectator makes his own journey, builds his own impression”.
A work where sound design is of great importance, which uses storytelling elements specific to audio. The story is told largely with the voice, not just with words, using sound archives, personal or public, and other texts. “We want to recreate the comfort of listening to a podcast and the care we put into the sound,” explains Morissette. But while exploiting the possibilities offered by the live art show, with live presentation and interaction with the public. “There is a basis for performance,” adds her co-author. We wanted to create accidents, and not script everything in advance. There are elements on stage that really fit into the present moment. »
The stage space recreates both a living room and a production studio, where the recording and listening devices are visible. And, in order to immediately establish a feeling of proximity, to break the fourth wall, the audience will cross the stage, where they will be greeted by the performers, before going to sit in the room. As if they were inviting viewers into their homes, into their lives.
“We don’t want people to watch the show like they would look out the window at what’s happening in a house,” explains Morissette. We want them to feel like they’re sitting in the living room with us. We decided to play a lot on amplification, on the intimacy that the microphones allow. » For the performers Émilie Bibeau and Emmanuel Schwartz, it was “a step out of their comfort zone, at times. And that’s a good thing.”
This sensory work depicts entities, presences, rather than defined characters. Four voices are intertwined. If the two experienced actors can sometimes embrace a theatrical performance, Célia Gouin-Arsenault and Morissette himself adopt a more narrative approach on stage. “Everyone has their own field in relation to the story,” adds the creator. We leave the audience free to make connections between the stories. It is more circular than linear, both in substance and in form. »
A pianist, Alexis Elina, will also accompany the quartet on stage.
Universal
Born from a personal experience, this exploration of the theme of separation, and subsequent moving, nevertheless has a universal dimension. “Everyone, from near or far, experiences breakups,” recalls Morissette. And we wanted to make sure [dépasser] the simply biographical aspect, by referring to other situations which do not directly involve us, or by allowing ourselves certain liberties in autofiction. »
Playing around the essential theme of home today also leads to touching on a wide range of subjects, such as access to housing. “The discourse and the situation have evolved very quickly recently regarding our relationship with houses,” adds Julien Morissette. It allowed us to encompass broader thoughts. »
And the creation reached a very wide audience, notes Karina Pawlikowski, recalling spectators in their seventies or eighties who came to see them at the end of the show, with tears in their eyes. “I can’t say exactly what, but something came to touch them during the show, perhaps linked to childhood or a memory. »
This impressionist story indeed offers the public the possibility of projecting their own story, including other types of separation experienced with a loved one. “This is what we received from the experience in front of the public in Ottawa,” agrees Julien Morissette. And we bring a slightly different perspective in which people can possibly find comfort. Or the courage, sometimes, to say to oneself, thanks to this idea of transformation: maybe a separation isn’t so bad after all. »