After a ten-year pilgrimage all over the world, Machine de Cirque invites its flock to commune during a Grand-Mess circus show organized in the majestic setting of the Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church, in lower town Quebec. The show, one of the few presented at home by the capital’s troupe, aims to take root until it becomes a must in the cultural landscape of the capital.
Circus Machine collected many stamps in his passport before settling down at home. Grand-Mess comes to life after ten years of touring and more than 1,200 performances — a pilgrimage that took the troupe to around twenty countries with nine different productions.
“Even though we create all our shows here, we have always had a problem establishing roots in Quebec because we present the majority of our shows internationally,” explains the company’s general director, Vincent Dubé. Now that we have this place, it allows us to anchor ourselves in the community. »
It is also with the intention of opening its temple of creation to the public that the troupe has set up its home in the magnificent Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church. Since it took over the premises in 2020, Machine de Cirque has enabled the restoration of the two bell towers and the masonry on the facade, giving luster to the exterior. Grand-Mess should now allow you to discover the richness of the woodwork and sculptures which still give the place its sacred beauty.
“For us, it is important that there are times when people can enter the church and enjoy this heritage,” continues the director. After all, it was the community that built it: pretty much everything here, from the stained glass windows to the benches, was once subsidized by the people. »
The circus meets the existential quest
There Grand-Mess de Machine is as much a spectacle as an experience since the troupe invites its audience to a reception in three stages lasting four hours. The prologue to this “jubilant existential parade-show” unfolds in the form of a stroll, drink in hand, to discover the church and its hidden treasures. Next, the show, which features 15 and a half artists — falconer and domesticated hawk included. The conclusion is intended to be convivial: night owls will be able to linger at the bar set up in the vestibule to keep the evening going, a bit like the community used to drag out Sunday mass in the past on the church square.
This Grand-Mess multiplies the references to the church, but also the kind irreverences towards it. “We had fun playing with the codes of the mass,” explains the show’s director, Martin Genest. There is playfulness, and it is also the meeting of the profane and the sacred. Our Mass, I always say, is not Catholic! »
The show revolves around the big questions that trouble humanity. “Where do we come from and where are we going: these are classics for all ages,” emphasizes the director. This is what we tried to approach — playfully. »
There Grand-Mess enjoys never providing answers to these big questions. “At the start of the parade, we invite people to walk not a station of the cross, but a path of what,” says the general director with a laugh. The show takes up the figure of the procession to approach the human march, inexorable but which knows only one direction – forward!
High-flying design
Circus Machine wants its Grand-Mess become one of the cultural signatures of Quebec — and she has gone to great lengths and a few miracles to get there.
A few days before the premiere, there was still commotion inside the deconsecrated temple. The stands took shape while the acrobats warmed up on the stage erected in the heart of the nave. In the narthex, workers were putting the finishing touches to the refreshment bar that would welcome the public. The conversion of the church into a performance hall was taking place before our eyes: the Grand-Mess which will begin on Wednesday is almost the Immaculate Conception.
“We are putting on a show at the same time as a theater,” underlines Vincent Dubé. His team had to build, in this place with such unique architecture, a skeleton capable of supporting the technique and the artists. The ramps and the footbridge cross the nave, sitting on the passageways but still supported – “to increase the load capacity”, explains technical director Jérémi Guilbault-Asselin – by a web of steel cables clinging to steel plates. anchors screwed to the roof trusses, perched several meters higher.
Circus Machine also had to build backstage and design lighting in a place where the omnipresence of stained glass windows prevented the creation of black on demand.
“During the day, it was impossible for us to work,” says Keven Dubois, responsible for lighting the show and illuminating the ornaments that adorn the church. It was therefore necessary to work entirely at night. »
The appearance of the show, which will mobilize the efforts of around fifty people each evening, promises to be prodigious – or “numinous”, to use the word dusted off by the playwright Jean-Philippe Lehoux to express the sensation of vertigo which grips the soul and heart before a splendor that surpasses understanding.
In rehearsal, the acrobats who performed in the middle of the nave with, as a backdrop, the magnificent high altar of the Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church already promised a spectacle capable of granting the prayers of the most demanding audiences.
“Our goal is to convince people to leave their living rooms to return to see living art,” concludes Vincent Dubé. If we don’t succeed with this, I wonder what it will take! » Hallelujah!