Youth theatre: beautiful shows to enjoy with the family

This text is part of the special booklet Culture as a gift

From the great classics to clowning around, passing through tales celebrating the imagination and the beauty of winter, everything is there to spend great holidays at the theater, in the company of the little ones.

November 27, 28 and 29 at the Outremont Theater

This dear Miguel de Cervantes having omitted to write him an end, Sancho Panza finds himself animated by a feeling of abandonment and a legitimate frustration. Until the day when the faithful squire arrives in the form of a puppet to make the fortuitous meeting of a professional clown and a theater director whose main actor is late for the first performance of Don Quixote… Freely adapted from the classic by Cervantes, the show, written with four hands by Jackie Gosselin and Jacques Laroche, is a declaration of love as much for the world of the famous Spanish playwright as for the clowning so dear to the co-artistic director of DynamO theater and the artistic director of the Théâtre de la Petite Marée.

From November 30 to December 20 at the Maison Théâtre

As we prepare to unwrap our presents under the Christmas tree, the show created by Liliane Boucher and Jean-François Guilbault is certainly timely. Two clowns fresh from the factory, named Attention and Fragile, are delivered on stage all wrapped in their bubble wrap. The funny characters then get their hands on a catalog of objects, each more desirable than the other, and embark on a frenzy of online purchases, until they are overwhelmed with packaging and have no more space. to live. Enough to make children and their parents think about overconsumption and its excesses, with few words and lots of laughter.

From 1^er to December 21 at Les Gros Becs theater

It’s a good old tradition now well established in Quebec. When the time comes to decorate the Christmas tree, the company La Vierge folle comes to share fabulous Christmas stories inspired by the emblematic places and the inhabitants of the Old Capital under the vaults of the Maison Chevalier. This year, the troupe of actors is innovating by adapting its popular Tales to pass the time to a young audience, to allow children (5 to 10 years old) to embark in turn on warm stories that come to revive the magic of the Holiday season, always with Quebec City in the background.

Moby-Dick

The 1^er and December 2 at the Outremont theater

With her company Plexus Polaire, the Norwegian director Yngvild Aspeli has placed human-sized puppets at the heart of her creations, while playing extensively with light, music and video. So many elements that we find in his latest show which made a strong impression during its presentation at the Semaine d’art in Avignon. Carried by fifty puppets, seven actor-puppeteers and an engulfed orchestra, his grandiose adaptation of Moby-Dick plunges us back into the titanic work of Herman Melville, to better probe the depths of the human soul through the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab launched on his mad whaling expedition.

Zoom-boom-boom

December 4 at Salle Claude-Léveillée

Created with the financial support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and produced by Jeunesses musicales du Canada, this introduction to electroacoustic music leads the little ones in Sam’s footsteps. For this child with an overflowing imagination (camped by actress Sandrine Lemieux), every little everyday noise is an opportunity to escape to an extraordinary world, in the company of her imaginary friend and musician Charlie (played by percussionist Kristie Ibrahim). A show without dialogue, but rich in sounds, intended for 2 to 6 year olds.

December 4 at the Outremont Theater

Published in 1962, Claude Aubry’s famous tale was given a new lease of life in 2015, with the publication by La Montagne secrete of a book-disc illustrated by Pierre Pratt and set to songs by the folk-traditional music group Bon Storeroom. This adaptation is now transposed on stage by Edgar Bori, who puts on his storytelling clothes to bring to life Griboux, the hungry old wolf from the Laurentians who came close to spoiling New Year’s Eve by crunching his teeth into little Jesus. Projected on stage, the beautiful illustrations of Pierre Pratt evoke the nostalgia of the holidays of yesteryear, against a backdrop of reels, jigs and other Christmas songs performed by the musicians of Bon Débarras.

From December 14 to 1^er January at Tohu

After having traveled to the four corners of the world, Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone, from the New York duo Acrobuffos, are taking up residence under the marquee of the Cité des arts du cirque in Montreal to present their show-event for the first time in Quebec. We follow a brother and a sister in a strange country where umbrellas fly and where balloons swallow people, among other curiosities. Developed in collaboration with the kinetic sculptor Daniel Wurtzel, this breathtaking tribute to the power of the air meets in every way the specifications of the Tohu, which has given itself the mission of making young and old discover the beautiful diversity contemporary circus.

From December 19 to 22 at the Outremont Theater

Adhesive tape has often stimulated and fed the imagination of our toddlers. In the fascinating show by the company Synthèse Additive, this material full of surprises invites the youngest (from 2 years old), as well as the oldest, to wonder about the links that unite us to others and to our environment. On stage, Mélanie Baillairgé, Marika Karlsson and Myriame Larose slip into the shoes of members of a feminist rock band who unroll and follow a strip of duct tape to escape what looks like a totalitarian regime.

December 26 at the Duceppe Theater

To the delight of the youngest who know her as Ari Cui Cui, Ariane Gauthier is making her return to the theater with her latest show paying homage to the magic of winter. The singer from Aylmer dons for the occasion the cozy clothes of the little girl, whom she personifies on stage and in songs for almost ten years. In this tasty winter musical with sets designed by Frédérick Ouellet, Ari Cui Cui challenges himself to realize his great dream of skating (without falling) on ​​the ice. Or how to celebrate perseverance, rather than performance, by taking full advantage of the festivities of the beautiful winter season.

From December 27 to January 8 at the Maison Théâtre

In And me, I am an island, the Montreal writer of Haitian origin Anthony Phelps imagined the island of Montreal emerging from the bed of the St. Lawrence River to meet its sisters, the Caribbean islands. This story inspired Sabrina Baran with the idea of ​​her latest show for children featuring three star sisters — a musician, a contemporary dancer and a puppeteer — embarking on a fascinating epic in the heart of an astonishing archipelago. Conceived as an ode to the exhilarating power of the imagination, this poetic journey takes young audiences on a journey through a moving universe populated by fantastic puppets and other curious island creatures.

Coucou Passe-Partout, the show

December 28 and 29 at the Duceppe Theater

In March 2020, Élodie Grenier, Gabrielle Fontaine and Jean-François Pronovost were to set off on the roads of Quebec for a tour of around forty performances. The pandemic went through there and the performers of Passe-Partout, Passe-Carreau and Passe-Montagne had to wait two long years before they could finally meet their chicks and chicks. Directed by Marc St-Martin (the Kao of Knock Knock knock), the show promises to plunge toddlers (and their nostalgic parents) back into the world of Télé-Québec’s hit children’s show, with lots of songs, stories and interactive games.

This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.

To see in video