Review: (Quebec City) Aiguilles et Opium

Mind-blowing; mind-boggling
by Isabelle-Ann Charlebois
@isaannc

Once again director Robert Lepage fills us with wonder with his hypnotic multimedia projections. We are transported in literal and figurative terms between Paris and New York, 1949-89, and also between lost loves and addictions. Notions of hypnotism, hypnotist and hypnotized are well represented by sets and projections and by the actors’ play and characters’ thoughts and lines. The rotating stage takes us deep into the characters’ hearts, minds and even the absences they are surviving.

Jean Cocteau (Marc Labrèche) is often suspended from the rafters and surrounded by a starry sky, taking us with him, into him, deep in his thoughts about life and about his lost love, the poet Radiguet.  Through Labrèche’s acting and words we can almost feel the wellbeing that opium procures. At other times, Labrèche plays Robert, a Quebec actor who escaped to Paris after a breakup. Living in La Louisianne Hotel, room number 9, where once stayed Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Robert struggles with the desire to be rehabbed from his love for the girl. What unifies the play is the music and glimpses of the life of Miles Davis and his addiction to heroin and the chanteuse Juliette Greco. 

Even if the subject is often very heavy, Lepage brings out lightness throughout the play and Labrèche makes us laugh as well. This is a must see here, or in Toronto.

This Ex Machina production is at le Théâtre du Trident in French until October 18th
The production subsequently tours to Toronto at Canadian Stage as Needles and Opium November 22-December 1

Review: (Quebec City) Les Enrobantes - cabaret décolleté pour psychanalyste plongeant

(l-r) Valérie Laroche - Lola (photo by: Vincent Champoux)

Sex, Drugs...and a lack of Rock 'n' Roll
by Isabelle-Ann Charlebois

Let’s talk about sex, and watch puppets have some.

Les Enrobantes, the last play of the Trident season directed by Bertrand Alain, is one that deals with who we are, what we want and what we can bring to each other in every way...if you know what I mean. 

The stage is once again superbly organized. There are some musicians on house-right and there is a big wagon on the left.  The wagon opens to reveal Freud’s home and later on it becomes a whorehouse.  In the middle, there is a whore’s dressing table. Here exquisite verbal exchanges occur.

Review: (Quebec City) Frankenstein

Christian Michaud (photo credit Vincent Champoux)

The Creature
Shouldn’t beauty be blind?
by Isabelle-Ann Charlebois

The play opens with an almost naked creature (Christian Michaud) trying to come alive.  As the apparent quadriplegic tries to stand up, I feel sick to my stomach. It is an endless beginning, I want to go home already.

Then Victor Frankenstein (Étienne Pilon) arrives and sees the creature agonizing on the floor. He looks amazed, but also scared.  The hideousness of his creation repulses him and he runs away, leaving the poor beast by itself.  It finally gets up on its feet; nothing to make me feel better as I cannot bear seeing stitches, blood or suffering.

Review: (Quebec City) Le Projet Laramie

(photo credit: Vincent Champoux)

Introspection: personal and social

by Isabelle-Ann Charlebois

@Isaannc

At Le Trident, this season is the season of noise: La saison qui fait du bruit.  To speak or not to speak. To express yourself or not to express yourself. Laramie which means “Tears of Love” represents well the drama of Le Projet Laramie. 

Le Trident's stage, partly covered with sand, takes us directly to Laramie, Wyoming. Laramie is beautiful...but there is a flaw. At the heart of that flaw are attitudes to homosexuality.  Embroidered around the flaw, is an array of concerns: bullying, violence, acceptance, social blindness, silence, pity, intolerance, the right to be different. Everyone is concerned.

Ten actors play 60 different Laramie residents; each is the spokesperson for a different viewpoint and opinion about what happened. Everything is “ok” as long as you follow "the guidelines". Director Gill Champagne forces us to consider our own values through the prism of Mormonism and Christianity. Is religion a good or a bad thing;  it all depends on how you interpret the "guidelines" and live them.

Review: (Quebec City) Thérèse et Pierrette à l'ecole des Saints-Anges

The hidden side of religion: lust, power and more.

Trident offers a solid new adaptation of a Michel Tremblay novel

By Isabelle-Ann Charlebois

Power is the essence of Thérèse et Pierrette à l'École des Saints-Anges, a new adaptation by Serge Denoncourt of Michel Tremblay's novel about primary Catholic school in the 1940s - pre-Quiet Revolution. We can feel it through the trio of Thérèse, Pierrette and Simone and in their environment.  Also, just as the evening’s program states, the seven deadly sins are well represented in Gilles Champagne’s direction.

Review: (Quebec City) La Médée d'Euripide

Grief, Great pain and...

Linda Laplante gives a towering performance

by Isabelle-Ann Charlebois 

When Jason (Hugues Frenette) leaves Médée (Linda Laplante) and her two sons for another woman - the daughter of Créon, King of Corinthe - despair, frustration, pain and a myriad of emotions fill the air.  

Médée gave everything up - her land, her people -  and even killed her own brother in order to be with Jason. She helped him get The Golden Fleece and fight the three-headed snake and so much more. Now she just cannot accept his abandonment. Rage and fury overtake her. 

Review: (Quebec City) La nuit des rois

Réjean Vallée, Jean-Jacqui Boutet, Denis Lamontagne and Kevin McCoy

(Photo: Vincent Champoux)