What have become of our “mutants”, 12 years after the creation of the Mutants? Difficult to answer the question, because the actors of the new version do not know it themselves…
At the invitation of the director and artistic director of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, Sylvain Bélanger, the members of the Théâtre de la Banquette posterior are offering, until October 14, a new play inspired by The Mutants, a show created in 2011 which enjoyed great public and critical success.
Neither sequel nor resumption, Les Mutant.es 2023 (we added an inclusive point in the title) brings together a dozen students in a class. But this time, without master or teacher. Left to their own devices in a series of playful tables, these students, now in their forties, will take turns performing games and tests around fairly broad themes: I adapt; I count ; I orient myself; I am located, etc. As well as a dictation, a public speaking exercise and a quotation game: the group must guess whether it is authentic or borrowed from a writer…
At the heart of this proposition: the quest for meaning. These young members of Generation X want to get rid of the label of “sacrificed generation” that sticks to them. And leave an intergenerational legacy: “What did they take from the world? What did they give him? What do they have left? » So many questions!
The show addresses too many avenues and stage forms, without ever finding a common thread. A guiding dramatic line. If Quebec’s motto is “I remember”, that of Mutant.es would be: “Who am I? » The core of The Backseat comes from the 2001 class of the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Art. These are the children of September 11, the digital shift, climate and environmental disasters. We can understand their many questions, faced with an era that is slipping through their fingers. But it seems like these “Mutants” are apologizing for taking their place in the City…
Certainly, we are faced with a performative and collective approach. The text is credited to Sylvain Bélanger and Sophie Cadieux, in collaboration with the ten performers of the troupe. There is an enormous amount of research and a great creative spirit behind this proposal. However, by searching too much on “the side roads”, the troupe forgot to take the main path of artistic creation. The one that holds up a mirror theater of what resembles us and differentiates us in the great and beautiful human adventure. Common sense, in short.