Damien (Andrew Albanese) and Patricia (Chantal Dupuis) dive in turn and each on their own into worlds populated by giant dolls, bird children, cruel and wicked mothers or even enigmatic characters, knife in hand, ready to transform dreamers into strange creatures. Probing the depths of the unconscious, author Étienne Lepage encourages children to push the limits of the imagination.
With Stories to make nightmares, the author — who also won the Governor General’s Award in 2014 for this text — manages with sensitivity and in a metaphorical way to skillfully express the psyche of dreams, ensuring improbable links between characters as comical as their aims. From this child (Chantal Dupuis) who paints a portrait of the school, this “smut” where we “unlearn how to know nothing”, where the students squawk and cackle like birds, to the revenge of a a life-size doll (Andrew Albanese) who comes to haunt the little girl in a cruel and bloodthirsty nightmare – undoubtedly the highlight of the show – the piece presents itself as a series of dreamlike scenes.
If certain scenes are truly successful and allow the spectators to enter into the universe evoked, others however drag on without succeeding in shaking, moving, or even making people shudder. Damien’s dream, entangled in a story of pieces of chocolate to share between his ten friends, is part of these less successful moments. His torment – well felt – becomes an interminable mathematical calculation, which will have made the children sitting in the Les Gros Becs theater squirm, ready to leave this nightmare which is undoubtedly too real.
Evoke, dance, shout
The richness of the play is due to Lepage’s lively and poetic writing, which depicts themes intimately linked to the daily lives of children, themes which can quickly turn into a nightmare (friendship, school, fear of the dark, monsters, etc. ). But if the text ensures a real dive into the other side of the looking glass, a few strings would have benefited from being tightened with regard to the staging.
Jocelyn Pelletier certainly and easily manages to evoke drama thanks, in particular, to different stage techniques such as, for example, fog, lighting, music. Nothing is shown clearly, everything is suggested, which maintains an uncertain climate. In the lead, the transformation of Damien into a creature from beyond the grave carried out in slow motion while Patricia, speaking to the audience, recounts the event. Although representative of the incongruous and unusual passage that exists between dreams, the sequences between the paintings remain astonishing. Presented by the two actors, the short sketches sung – or rather shouted – struggle to be credible, giving the impression of sloppy numbers contrasting with the whole.
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2023-10-23 04:00:17
#Stories #nightmares #invitation #sleep #standing
