Debbie Lynch-White admits it straight away and without hesitation: never in her entire performing career has she had to deal with a score as intense as that of the solo Tremblements, presented from November 14 at Espace Go.
“The intensity is broil, from start to finish,” says the actress with a laugh.
This play written by Torontonian Christopher Morris recounts the questions and traumas of Marie, a Montreal nurse returning from a humanitarian mission in Africa with Doctors Without Borders. To write his text, the playwright followed for years a nurse named Lisa, who participated in her first aid mission abroad. He even accompanied her on the ground, in conflict situations. The play is a documented fiction freely inspired by the story of this Montrealer.
“When we meet the character of Marie, she is in the middle of trauma,” adds Debbie Lynch-White. She came back from Africa completely devastated. She saw the worst horrors there. She is in post-traumatic shock and is asking herself big questions. She wants to sort out the good and the bad in her memories. To try to get better. »
“It’s a real shock to enter this very confronting text,” adds director Édith Patenaude. How can we be knowing everything we know about the world and its inequities? How can you really help in these circumstances? Is the impact necessarily positive if the initial intentions are good? These are extremely complex questions. »
“Before reading this piece, I did not appreciate the level of danger to which aid workers are exposed,” admits Debbie Lynch-White. The adrenaline, the solidarity that is being built, the feeling of helplessness. Everything is exacerbated. Today, I wonder how we can return to normal life after that…”
Debbie Lynch-White has been involved in this project for five years now. At the time, Christopher Morris was looking for a Montreal performer to bring Tremblements on stage. “He approached me when his piece was only two pages long. He made several return trips between Toronto and Montreal. We did a lot of exploration, the piece went through several routes. »
How to describe the end result? “The text is a flow, a breath. It’s raw, it’s direct. Writing does not take four paths. I’m not afraid to say it: I’m terrified by this project. But this terror is a driving force for me. »
Édith Patenaude feels somewhat the same feeling. “I feel in danger as a director, because there is something radical in the writing. We are not comfortable. Even if there is humor, the text is uncomfortable and frontal. We have no choice but to fully embark. Because that’s where it exists. »
“For Debbie, this piece is about performance. It takes courage to perform this text. I always tell him “Good luck” before it starts! », she adds.
These words are not trivial. Because night after night, Debbie Lynch-White will throw herself headlong into a torrent that will carry her away like a cork.
This new theatrical project closely follows the end of filming on the film Les-s-sœurs, in which Debbie Lynch-White plays Des-Neiges Verrette, “the romantic virgin in love with her brush merchant”.
“You know when the mayo is a problem or not on a shoot and here, we worked with the cream of all the departments. I assume I’m setting the bar high: this film is going to be sickening! I can’t wait to see the final result. »
To close 2023, the Trident in Quebec presents Pompières et pyromanes, a play based on the essay of the same name by Martine Delvaux. The author and essayist questions the legacy of her generation in a letter addressed to her daughter, Éléonore Delvaux-Beaudoin. She is part of the cast with eight other performers. The production is by the APA office, known for its “undisciplined theater”. This small group of versatile artists from the National Capital creates works that aim to shake us up in our certainties. In this show, “it will not only be about climate emergency, but also about filial love, witches and a hundred conifers who only seek to live,” we write in the press release.
The 60th season of the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier continues with the play Le roi danse, by Emmanuelle Jimenez. This adapted for the stage the successful film by Gérard Corbiau, released in 2000, itself inspired by the novel Lully or the Musician of the Sun. The story tells of the meeting between the Sun King, the composer Lully and Molière. Under the direction of Michel-Maxime Legault, the work illustrates the passion of this trio who devote themselves to the perfection of their art, between music, dance and theater. With Mattis Savard-Verhoeven (Louis XIV), Simon Landry-Désy (Lully), Jean-François Nadeau (Molière), as well as Sharon Ibgui, Marie-Thérèse Fortin and Marcel Pomerlo.
Presented at Tangente last year, Masquerades brings together six female performers in a closed session inspired by the codes of cinema and painting. In this stage work the “quasi-graphic” choreographic writing of Katia-Marie Germain is deployed, in a setting which recreates the rooms of a fictitious residence where portraits of women are presented. “In a refined movement imbued with modesty, sometimes fragile and strong, these women engage in a delicate enigma tinged with guilt, simulacrum and disappearance. »
Casteliers welcomes this week the creators and puppeteers Raquel Silva and Alessandra Solimene with the paper theater adaptation of Palomar. A work by the author Italo Calvino, whose 100th birth anniversary is being celebrated. A production of the company Pensée visible (France-Italy). “Palomar is a brilliant spectacle of intelligence and charm […] quality visual theater,” wrote critic Mathieu Dochtermann, on the Toutlaculture website. Show for adults (14 years and over) presented from November 9 to 11 at the Maison des arts de la Marionnette. In addition, Casteliers will also present at the Écuries, on November 15 and 16, the solo L’ivresse des depths by Iranian puppeteer Sayeh Sirvani.
After touring all over the world, the trio The Tiger Lillies returns to Quebec with a show faithful to its macabre and grating aesthetic, entitled From the Circus to the Cemetery. The British group founded by composer and singer Martyn Jacques continues to shake audiences with multi-instrumental performances, juggling accordion, piano, drums, bass, musical saw and ukulele. An underground and punk proposal specific to the unique style of Tiger Lillies.
