For its 75th anniversary, the Rideau Vert – the oldest professional French-language theater company in operation in the country – will honor its past… while looking to the future.
The artistic director, Denise Filiatrault, and the general manager, Céline Marcotte, unveiled the six shows of the 2023-2024 program on Monday morning. Several new faces will tread the boards of the theater founded by Yvette Brind’Amour and Mercedes Palomino in 1948. And no less than four directors will work there for the very first time: Marie Brassard, Sébastien David, Brigitte Poupart and Louis-Karl Tremblay.
Directed by Mani Soleymanlou, in co-production with the National Arts Center (NAC) French Theater, the opening show will feature nine young performers recently graduated from theater schools. Under the direction of Marie Brassard, L’ombre is a collective show that will explore “the shadow as creative material to better pay homage to ambiguity and doubt”, while a certain pandemic has veiled the horizon and the prospects of playing on our big sets. Moreover, Soleymanlou will propose the creation of a new show, carried by theater graduates, each new season. The play will be on view from August 23 to September 9.
This will be followed, from September 27, by Un “reel” ben beau, ben triste, a landmark piece from the repertoire by Jeanne-Mance Delisle. More than 40 years after its creation, this “black diamond of Quebec dramaturgy” will be directed by Marc Béland. The latter speaks of a unique work on the “violence and moral misery of a dysfunctional family” in Abitibi whose children revolt against a despotic father. Nathalie Mallette, Ève Duranceau, Gabrielle Lessard and Sarah Laurendeau are part of the cast.
At the end of January, the Rideau Vert will kick off the year 2024 with a play on mathematician Alan Turing, The Turing Machine, by French author Benoit Solès. Under the direction of Sébastien David, in an adaptation by Maryse Warda, the very talented Benoit McGinnis will play the famous genius, persecuted for his homosexuality by the British authorities after the 1939-1945 war.
Brigitte Poupart will also make her debut at the rue Saint-Denis theater in March 2024. She will stage Never, Always, Sometimes, a very beautiful title for a play that explores mental illness in young people, against the backdrop of a troubling relationship. bipolar mother-daughter, respectively played by Annick Bergeron and Lauren Hartley.
The season will end in May with Mademoiselle Agnès, a contemporary reinterpretation of Molière’s Misanthrope, signed by Rebekka Kricheldorf, adapted and directed by Louis-Karl Tremblay. The Théâtre Point d’Orgue production, created at Prospero in the fall of 2022, stars Sylvie Drapeau and Éric Bernier.
A musical parenthesis in the program, L’Amour according to Venne, a tribute show to the author-composer of several great hits in Quebec song, will be on view from November 9 to 11. This intimate show for piano and voice, with Catherine Sénart, will also tour the region. Finally, the must-see holiday show, 2023 Review and Correction, will return with the same cast of actors: Pierre Brassard, Benoit Paquette, Monika Pilon, Marie-Ève Sansfaçon and Marc St-Martin. Natalie Lecompte will direct them.
To mark its 75th anniversary, the Rideau Vert also announced the publication of a book highlighting its rich history, under the direction of journalist André Ducharme, at Éditions de l’Homme. Publication: September 25, 2023. The Rideau Vert will organize a thematic exhibition in Saint-Denis Street and will broadcast original content on its website. Other events will be announced throughout the year.