There are experiences from which we do not emerge unscathed. And plays that leave a lasting impression on us. This is the case with Tremblements, a play which tackles head-on the harsh reality of humanitarian workers.
As soon as we enter the Espace Go room, we understand that the evening will be spent under the sign of intensity. Dressed in underwear, her body shaken by irrepressible spasms, Debbie Lynch-White exposes herself with great vulnerability to the gaze of the spectators who enter. Curled into a ball on a platform that never stops rotating, the performer seems on the verge of breaking down even before a single line has passed her lips.
And when the words start flowing, there will be no stopping them.
Indeed, for the first solo of her theatrical career, Debbie Lynch-White must deal with a feverish score, like a great cry of despair and rage launched into the face of the world.
Here she plays Marie, a Montreal nurse returning from two humanitarian missions, one of which was in the Central African Republic. Forever changed by what she saw and what she experienced, she wonders out loud.
Her questioning is all the more painful because she has lost one of the only people capable of understanding the trauma she experienced. This friend is no more and Marie is drifting like a bottle thrown into the sea.
The text, written by Torontonian Christopher Morris, is inspired by the experiences of a Montreal nurse named Liza and her humanitarian missions within Doctors Without Borders. Impossible to accuse the playwright of exaggeration. We feel that Mary’s cry from the heart is anchored in truth. This perfectly imperfect character, with his excesses of all kinds, his inconsistencies and his unanswered questions, is shockingly realistic.
When directing, Édith Patenaude chose a refined approach, where the only stage element remains this round, black platform which rotates from the beginning to the end of the show in a hypnotizing movement.
The character goes around in circles in this cage without bars as his ideas go around in circles in his troubled head. For the actress, the shortness of breath is physical and mental.
No doubt, we are here in pure performance, in surpassing oneself. To the point where we wonder how Debbie Lynch-White will be able to maintain this emotional charge until the end of the performances.
For the public, this outpouring of emotions is also heavy to bear. So much so that when the lights go out, the spectators gasp for breath before leaving, shaken.
