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BOSNIAN WAR DJARY

PATRICK COLEMAN1ON ENGLISH7 7AMONTREAL FKTJON

D.G. JONES

ANN DIAMOND

FACE TO FACEWITH CLARKBLAISE

MONTREALTHEATRE

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TH EATRE

^m FROM EURIPIDES TO CARBONE 14

NOTES ON MONTREAL THEATRE, 1993

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KÜRTÖSI the focus ofattention Is on the impactof the Trojan war on ihe women

Lnvolved. This ancient war fought almost three thousandyears ago because of the abduction of a woman Is aperfect aliegory for any war. Coming from a war-torn region of Europe, where women are victimsmany times over, I felt especialiy sensitive 10 thisquestiori.

The Greek classics have been a great challengefor theatre peopie in our century: the use of thechorus has discouraged some, while others (likeT.S. Eliot) tried to adapt it to twentieth-centurysituations. Alice Ronfard chose 10 give a faithfulrendering of Euripides' piay. The chorus in theTNM production consisted of about haif a dozenwomen with styiized movements, wearing black,red or white dresses to underline the given situa-ion in the piay. The choreography balances thestatic eiements of the piay as poetry and intenseemotions fill the stage. Suffering caused to womennever fails to arouse sympathy, and in ihis play

there are many varieties of such suffering: Hécubehas lost a husband and a beloved son and,

• ‚in the course of the play, she loses her

‚grandson, so that she will have no de-scendants. Andromache has lost her

husband, 1-lector, and has to bury herson who is kiiled iii the course ofche play. Cassandra is taken as pris-

oner by Agamemnon and in her maddance—perhaps the most outstandingscene in this performance—seems ready

to accept this sicuation.Héléne, however, Is incapable of com-

prehending the consequences of her imre-sponsible decision and looks at the eventsand the sufferings of others from a dis-tance. She represents the transition he-tween the antique wor]d—the world ofthe women characters—and the worldof the late twentieth-century, the mo-bile and ruthless world of men, asunderiined by King Menélaos' blackleather costume. It is not only themise-en-scéne that spans severai

Matasang rede. Mauricio Celedon

What follows is a summary of haifA ALINa year of Montreal theatre seenthrough the eyes of a visitor from Hungary with ininterest in Canadian theatre—and especiaily iri pivusing more than one language. if I hesitate to dc-scribe diis as bi1inguaIism" in clrama, it Is becascI soori learned that it is wiser to refer to 'cod-swiching straregies—at least if I wamed to avokipoliticai fali-out. During my six-morh stay ear[terthis year, I made a poirit of trying to map Montrealiheatre life in generai, ranging from shows of ciassicplays chrough opera and bailet to experimentai theatresand the Festival de Théátre des Amériqoes: a rnanv-síded picture with severai outstanding performanccssome exciting experimental ideas and some workneeding further elaboracion.

The European visitor is struck, firsi of ali, by (hewide range of theatrical activities iii Montreal, fr(mswdent shows to The Phantom ofthe Opera, but m:eforcefuHy by the fact that here one can witnesstheatre iii ihe making: the lack of a longpast makes it ali the more exciting. Theprogram over these six months spannedthe two thousand five hundred ye:irhistory of Western theatre. j

The earliest piece of the ciassicairepertoire was Les Troyennes byEuripides, directed by Alice Ronfardat the Thétre du NouveauMonde. Euripides, theyoungest (and oftericonsidered the most"modem") of the great Greektriad, turned to the iegendofTroy for material, evokingPoseidon, the God of theSea (Jean-Pierre Ronfard),Pallas Athéné (MoniqueRichard) and Cassandra theprophetess (Marie-FranceLambert), as well as historicalfigures like Hécuhe, thewidowed queen of Troy andmoher of Paris (MoniqueMercure), Menélaos (DenisMercier), Héiéne's ahandonedhushand. As ihe titie suggests,

The staging of any of Shakespeare pIays aIw:raises special probtems, and this is epeciaI!y rhecase with the so-called probtem ploy s " tike Meas-ure for Measure, which is also frequvrttly calteddark comedy and neglected in the iheatres. Fortheoreticians, however, the ptay is of great interest,as it incorporaes elements of the ear[y comedies(disguised character, multiple marriages) and of 'heromances (fable-like plot, sins and misoikes forgiven).But of even greater interest is the pluy's questiofl-ing of values and is searchirtg expIorition of Love,of a wronged woman, of abuse and, in the broihesceries, institutionalized sex. In theatrical terms, theDuke of Vienna is not only the good ruler whowants to see how his people act in his absence,but a director moving his characters around likepuppets. Seen in this way, zhe strange coincidences(age-old theatrical conventions, Iik c ihe wonienchanging places so that Isabella doc' not have togive up her vow of chastity) acquire new meaning

Théátre 1774 stirred up the watcis of Québcctheatre life with their previous show L i/fa(re 7artiíj7,a heterotingual play set in contemporary Montrealwith a (Mo1ire) play within the play in late eigbt-eenth-century Québec. No wonder theatre-goers werelooking forward to what Marianne Ackermann ondSuzanne Lantagne would do with Sliokespeare. Intheir pre-show interviews they prornised an upduwdversion, but how would it be rea1ized' In íny view,his promise was best kept in ther treatment of

questiorls relating to women und the cliirch. Isabellais in love with God, and her great dilemma is whetherto keep her virginity or save her hromiier Claudio'slife. Julietta is expecting Claudio's baby, Mariannais Angelo's ahandoned fiancée, whiie MistressOverdone would most probahly be coled a sexoalworker in today's Montreal. The church is omm-preseflt in the play as un institution defining indsupervising moral rules, und it is ne hy chanceihat the Duke himself dresses up a friar whcrmobserving the behaviour of Angelo.

Suzanne Lanragne's direction lays s p ecial ernplio-sis on the iheatrical devices in MeasmoeforMeaswe,working out a special, non realistic way of rnovc-ment espccia!Iy for Pompey (France Rolland, whoatso played the role oF Julietta); scmc actors ptayedmale and female roles atike (Claire Schapiro ,vasMarianna as well as a Nun and Provost the jailer);und the Duke's disguise was also transparenc." Therewere no sets, just a few props such as a multi- cpurpose bench und musical instruments played munlyhy Mistress Overdone (Silvy Grenier) und, as )rhe costumes, colour was more important thanelahorate design. The stage itselí w,is ihe tloor -

thousand years: Mane Cardinal's new trrlaiion makthe text as cornemporary as possibIe—tt one pomteven 100 contemporary: the Chorus curse on thcMaudit Gréques!" seemed to me a bit far-fezchci

This, however, does not change my overalt impre.5-sion of the TNM's Les Troyennes as a good evoci-tion of Euripides' spirit, arid the fufl house oriTuesday night showed there is a demnci for suchendeavours on the part of Montreal auJiences.

of the theatre room at Centre Strathearn, surroundedby a few rows of benches on three sides. Emriesund exiis, therefore, were made through the audi-ence's domain, which underlined the proximity oíthe two spheres.

Thétre 1774 has beeri dedicated to experimen-tal theatre from its inception in 1989. With Measurefar Measure they proved that they not only ques-tion old routines of the theatre (like the necessityof impeccable English in staging Shakespeare) butare a!so ready to provide answers. This questionund answer process is what makes experimerna-tion live on.

Centaur Theatre in its 25th season returned toone of director Maurice Podbrey's favourite plays:Uncie Vanya by Anton Chekhov, with the directorhimself in the title role and Jean-Louis Roux, thfounder of the Thétre du Nouveau Monde piayinSerebiakov, a retired professor visiting his relativesin the country. Like other plays by Chekhov, UncicVanya, 100, presents a small world of lost hope,disappointmerit und helplessness. Far away Íromiritetlectual centres in late nineteenth century Rus-sia, time is spent nourishing unrealizable dreams.as the example of Sonia (Karen Bernstein) showwith her unfulfiLled love for Astrov, the doctor wln,tries to escape by drinking or daydreaming abnreforming traditional agriculture and saving the evironment Írom mechanization. Al the beginningihe play, the young wife of Serebiakov, Yelemi.Andreyevna (Kari Matchette) seems different Íromher provincial relations, but she 100 wants to breakfree Írom her aged husband, the Professor. Herí]ying spirit is stressed in this production by theCarmen motif und vaudeville-like speeded up scenesin the sitting room with the open window lettirigin the wind that sweeps everything away. Ac theother end of the scale, Uncie Vanya represencs theworld of impossible dreams when Vanya hesitantlyenters the room with red roses for Yelena Aridreyevnaonly to find her in the arms of Asirov the cloctor(played convincingLy by Lubomir Mykytiuk). Thistableau conveys alt the tragic tension of a hopelesssituation without a singie word being uttered, undconfirms that Podhrey is not anly a theatre directomof high reputation but an excetlent actor as well.

He has found a perfect partner in Jean-LouiRoux who, in addition to creating a credible figureof the Professor out of touch with the real world.also adds something extra to the original ptay: nothaving enough time to rehearse the rote in Englishhe himself transiated some passages into French(the English traaslation is by American playwrighJean-Claude Van Itallie) and switched Írom Engiisiinto French. Having two languages used by a highl'educated person adds an extra dimension 10 01.11

image of this character as well as remmnding us oihe fact that for the inteltigentsia of late nineteentlicentury Russia, French was the language of elevateconversation. Director Alexander Marin from Mosco'seems to have concentrated on key scenes of th

;play, which he accentuates hy nice chatges

- rhytkin from still-life ta uccelerated action-

compensating us for aspects of hperformance reqWring further e!aboraio

Albert Camus is a playwright who ISrereferred to Wan piayed in rhe theatre vHd. Thismay be one of ttie reasons why director Ren 11 , RichardCyr was tempted to present Le Malentem/u in theThtre du Nouveau Monde. The p!ay icselÍ combinesetemenrs of Aristotelian tragedy (niother kilis sonwithour knowing who the victim reall y is) and afabsurd theatre wirh great economy of Lanuage andmovemem. The result Is a confined world filledwith tension, pushirig the audience toward vmpathyfor ihe murderers—_mother and daughter—.vho arcobsessed by their desire to get away froni remotesmali town and reach the sea and the •unshineduring a war-torn period of European histiy. Theirmethod is to rob and kill guests at the in:iil hotelihey owri. To do so, the two women :cfuse tohave any human coriiact with their gue'c., soihe yourig man returning from another cou:try aftersome twenty years tries in vain to hím at hisrelationship with them. The mother Is marc hesitam,but the daughter insisrs on .doing away with bim.The young man reprcserns a totaily diífercn, world:he is happv with his wife who loves him, and hewants to reurn to his mother and sister after aliihose years spent way from bome. The two women,however, strangie him instead of embr:c:ng him,and he—like alI the other v ictims—_ends up in thenyer.

The TNM production stages this ruihks and yelogical world perfectly: both the directcr and theacors and actresses (the mother played by KimYaroshevskaya the daughter by Han M.sson, theson by Robei-t Lalonde, his wife by Louisc Laprade,while Jacques Galipeau was the servant) accepr therestrictions required by Camus. This disciplinci stagirigof Le Maientendu convinces us ihat illi'piaywright is the predecessor of whuBeckett developed in his "theatre of cheabsurd." Camus' bare world issuggested by Claude Goyettthe water pouring down in agu]Ly not only surprises thebut also shows how death sman away. The performastimulates further thoughcs alsuch basic questions as lifedeath and frec will ardeterminjsm

The contemporary Europdramas presented were JoOsborne's milesrone ptay, LooBack in Anger and two one-acipiays by Váciav Hável.Osborne's play has beencpntroversial ever since itsfirst production in 1956 inLondon where it waconsidered very daring inits relecijon of che oldergeneration—while today wewonder what cou!d have heen

Wought so "revolutionary" abour it. Was it thesewng: a poverzy-ridden atnc room? Ibsen had

hat in The Wiid Duck. Or, was it Jimmy's rejectionoí the old world values," represented by his father-ai-law, and consequently by Alison, his wife, too?Theatre history is full of plays exploiting similancnflict situations. What shocked theatre-goers musthave been Osborne's language: colloquial not onlyin its vocabulary but also in its rhythm and stresses-and this at a time when the British stage echoedv,th the subtle lines of poeic drama (piays by T.S.Eliot, Christopher Fry, et ai). The Centaurproductioni—djrected by Maurice Podbrey—was notrcally able to transfer the tension of the play intopresent-day Montreal. Very often the actors themselvesAidan Devine, Stephanie Morgenstern, Gien Roy

mid Linda Smith) seemed to be at a loss with thesituation they were in. The sets and costumes funhernaderlined the lack of spinit in the production.

Théűtre Biscuit Le Théátre de la Récidive showed.'lndience und Vernissage, two one-act plays by Váciavi-hível wriuen in 1975, which show rwo aspects ofhe relationsbip between man and power in Cen-rra! Europe. The present President of the CzechRepuhiic has had first-hand experience of this worldof ‚paranoia, double-talk and vulnerability. In thebrewery, the writer is no more than an "unski!ledworker" who not only has to listen to his boss'snonsense but is alsa forced to down several pinsof beer. In the course of the accion it becomesmore and more obvious that the boss Is in an evenmore pitiful situation than his worker: he is a vic-tim not only of his drinking habi, but of the sys-em, too, and unlike the writer, he can see no way

out. Audience shows minirnal action: opening suc-cessive botties of beer, the wniter cheats by pour-ing it fnom his glass into thai of the boss while he

is out of his office relieving himself. The text ofthe play is almost a monologue, with soniecomments on the part of the listener. Nonethe-less, we can get a full pictune of ihis strangeworld, thanks to the expent direction by Jean-C!aude Coté and Denys Lefevre in che role of

te wniter and Julien Poulin as the boss.In Vernissa,ge, the wniter Is visiting old

friends, a couple who, unlikehu, were ready to accept the

position offered by the system.-..After listening to the list of their

new acquisitions, he Is offereda glimpse of their son and a]so

of the couple's "new" and "mod-ern" way of making love. The visitor isnever asked a question about how he Isdoing these days, und the co-ordinated,

mechanical movemencs of the couple(Annie Gagnon and Frédéric Teyssier)and the awkward uneasjness of the

writer show how totail y differentare che wor!ds they arc living in.Finally, the writer manages to ce

Monique Mercure in the role of oHécube in Les Troyennes a.

escape Írom this mad world ugested convincinglyaod popularity thanks to ihe plays af Marcu Mkiire.by the tny stage ha usualiy huuses puppc iheatreF]ippo Salvatore und others. Pan Bouyouca, likeproductions. ali echnic writers, has had special problems to solve

before he could begin to wrice—and amorg iheseThe Montreal season of ihe Firsi part af 1993problems the most important one was ianguage.

featured not only landmark Europeari plays, bui someFor a trilingual writer his base Ianguage is a COflSCiOUS

of Québec theatre history, too. Marcel Duhé's Lesdecision. Bouyoucas decided on French. Fhen heBeaux Dimanches (1968) deals with ihe disillusionshas had to work out a system of how to represent

and private frustrations of a generation unabie 10the different echnic groups in the play—since itunderstand their children's totaily different approachgoes without saying that the plays of these writersto key problems of life arid politics. Co ihe surface,generally deal with the life und confiicts of iheirthe five coupies in the play arc successful middie-communily and with their relationship with otherclass people whose usual weekcnd fun consists ofgroups. Le Cerf-volant is about a middie-aged Greekdrinking parties at somehody's house und occasion-couple (first generation immigraots to Montreal,uiiy Fiirting with ihe wives or iheir friends. Theirplayed by Michelie Rossignol and Jacques Godin),chi!dren are either puppet-likc infantile creaturesGeorges, iheir san (Emmanuel I3tiodeau), u tenant(like Rodolphe with his carner hanging around hisin their house (a native of Montreal, Doitiiniqueneck) or they are not on speiking terms \\iih theQuesnel) and André-a, a Greek restaurant ownerparents (like Dominique who ccms to be ushamed(Lionel Vitleneuve), who is aiso ihe husbandsaf her parents' way of tife). broher.' Of the five-member cast, iherefore, faur

Dubé's play raises quesiion . ihat are siti rel-have Greek as their mother tongue, whiic Céiine,evant today, but the TNM prod'.ciion handied thethe tenant, is a Quéhécaise. In ihe ptay, Itowever,piece like a nineteenth-century ableau: the ceotrainothing is said in Greck (except for one word,elemeni of the living-room sei ig the bar counter,aétos, meaning a kite, i.e., the titie of the play:which means ihat ihe actors can use only ilie sideDimitri, the husband teaches it 10 tbe youngexiis. In her iniroduction-scene, Dominique (unfor-woman)—instead, we find standard French,tunately, ihe acrress's name Is niissing from ihe stageoccasionaily mixeci with English, mainly by Georgesbill) just came centre stage 10 speak her lines andand Andréa, his uncie, who wanted 10 show off inthen withdrew. Director Lorraine Pintal scems tofront of Céline; und at ihe end of the play, thehave been hesitant with ihe littie brushing-up iheGreek couple tries 10 communicate with her, 100:

play itself needed, and ihe result Is a monotonoustheir "French" is full of mistakes both in grammarrendering of an otherwise intere'ting piece.and pronunciation.

Michel Tremhlay's Les Belles Seurs (1968) needsThe conflicts are manifoid: those between iheno introduction ta Canadiari rcaiers, and no doubtsexes (Stella, the wife, Is fed up with her urider-this piay, ihe first to use jouaí on stage, has beendog situation; she has been sacrificing herseif boththe subject of many studies md is probably ato her husband and ta her son, and she has nottempiation far any direcior in Qu(bec. And especiailyeven had a chance to iearn French), that betweenfar Denise Filiatrautt, who pa:ncipated in ihe firstdifferent gerleralions (Georges represerns a toLaIlyrun af the play twenty-five years ago aric loves itdifferent way of life from his parents: work aloneso much that she has read it ime and again. Adoes nat satisfy bim), and finaily that between dif-quarter af a century Is a iong lime in contcmporaryferent echnic groups in a cosmopolitan city (Célinehistory, und several things have changed during theselistens to her music loudty, whiie Dimitri wants toyears. Still, Fiiiatrault decided not 10 change ihehear oniy bouzouki).originai text of Trembiays plav, but at ihe sarneIt is Gearges, the young rnan, who is ín a post-time she has accented some scLnes differentiy undtion to cross ali the language barriers in the play:has allowed the audience 10 re-eva]uate certainhe is fluent in Greek, in French (including jouaí andsituatians and wonder what could have been thoughtin English. He is ready to take advantage of hissa outrageous at the time of thc original productian.exceptional situatian und acis as a messenger fromShe has underiined the comic clements (especiallyhis father ta Céiine, smoothing ihe conflict andin the case of ihe morher-iri-iaw Iii the wheeichair)rnaking friends with the young woman. Later on iriand has .expioited the passibilities far song und musicihe play, however, he abuses his knowledge oÍwith a fotkloric touch (the Binga song) or wihlanguages: when his mother asks hím to translate asomething like irany (0, Canada). This approachFrench conversation irno Greek, he gives her aoffered ihe actresses (Francine Rael, Nicole Leblanc,false transiation and does the same for Céline, (00,Pauline Martin und the others) inany opportunitiesso that she won't have a bad impression of hisca play iri this celebration of thc wentieth ariniversaryfamily. The lunguage question, therefore, Is at theaf the Campagnie Jean Duceppc at Place des Arts.centre af ihe play: nat anly can we see different

Whiie Trembiay can be cT1'ddered a ciassic"leveis of the same ianguage—standard Frerich, joual,piaywright of Québec theatre wihi a signific ,,int bodyFrench with mistakes—and several switches Íromof piays, Pan Bouyoucas, had hi first French pieceone language írna anocher (e.g. Írom French intoin Théíítre d'Aujaurd'hui. Le cerfi.o/ant imroduces theEnglish), but in the course of the play, languagesGreek cammunhty ta Mornréul Weatre iife, foliowingare aiso very often an issue und a tapic of coriver-ihe exampie of the Italo-Car.udiun cammunitysation,which has already achieved remirkahie success --Pan l3ouyoucas does not hesitate to cati 1w;

play a tradicional one, iii which ernOtI()flacion figure Lmportantly. The central rnathai of escape: aLL the characters want to gt

he siwation they are in at present. The kiRtitle clearly suggests this desire to fly awav.100 clo the names of the wornen: CéLine anboth refer to the sky. TJp 10 now, bowehighest point they have been ahie to rerooí-terrace of iheir house—and this is wn

whole play takes place.

Alongside the traditionat theatrical aci v ities.Montreal is increasingly becoming an important centretof North Arnerican -experimental heatre-making.While the above playsrepresent verbal theatre,using traditional acting anddirecting, several exper-imenta] performances arebased ori these—equallyimportant—€lements: music,movement (very oftenacrobatic or with elementsof dance), serting, props andcostumes. Alternative orexperimentat theatre usuallydisregards the traditionaiborderlines between differeritart forms, thus offering anoverall experience andinviting the audience's co-operation.

Terre promise/Terrapromessa at Thétred'Aujourd'hui was a joiritproduction of rhe Montrealcompany Les deux niondes"and one from Turiri, Ilaly:"Teatro delI'Arigelo." Thiscofleciive creation shows thestory of ihe earth and man-kind in a wordless play wiiha very effective openingscene of a narrow slo ' abouttwo feet high on ihe stage:ali we can see arc humanfeet tramping on smallsandhills and plants. This iswheri the ceniral object ofihe play appears: a pieceof fiat stone which later on functions as m:ltomb-stone, or a rock on which lovers cnninitiais—always having a useful role untilcent history when it cannot fit mbthlawn of the golf course and is thrown awaylast scene oí the piay, this very stone is fwater by archeologists for whom it provesimportant witness" of previous times: it isgraphed and Finaily put in a giass caseseum. The story of this piece of stone tcstory of the hunian past and presént: times 01

events as well as of wars. There arc onivprops to suggest the period: the cotnn.

ple ones, 1ust mndicating the given activitieSrig (Mark Bromilow, France MerciLle, Moriiquend Yves Simard: each of them playing maleale roles alike) and music (Michei RohidouXXr, play major roles mn guiding us along theof this "prouiised land," our Earth.ne 14, ihe bes known Montreal-based ex-

ital theatre company, has beeri ihe Focus ofttention for over fifteen years with shows

Iikc Le Rait, the Emmy Award-winfling LeDorToir/'The/ )urmitwy, L 'Opium and Hamlet-MaChine. Last year'si. cajé des aveugles (shown at the National ArtsC(tnre. Ottawa, for a few nights in June 1993) is a

typicai exarnple of ihe workcarried out by the companyurtder Giiles Maheu's lead-ership: a colleciive creation,it uses music, dance andacrobatics, and expioits alirhe possibilities offered bytheatre space. Language alsotransgresSeSitS usua]boundaries: the frame isSusanne, sung by LeonardCohen, and the text oF thepLay switches betweenFrench and English. Onecan hardly resisi cornpar-ing Le café des aveugies withanother play abou blindpeople, Maeterlinck's Lesaceugles. In contrast withthe static meditation and thepresence of death in thelatter, the Carbone 14 playis full of movement, notonly on the part of actors,but with the props (cafétables and chairs) aisomoved about on stage atfull speed, or, at othertimes, used hy the actorslike a trapeze.

Krieg, Carbone 14's lat-est creation, showri atEspace Libre, makes use ofihe company's usual tech-niques (strictly composedmovernent elemems, fuliutilization of the space inali directions, inciuding

vertical, horizontal, and even "walking on the waLL,"witli the help of a rope moved along a rail in theoh), but offers some novelties as well. First of ali,nstead of omitting a script, here the conipany turned

to young German piaywright Rainald Goetz's 1983o ia y . whic

o h is Part I U a trilogy. This raw material

liws ali the crueity, mis"and viblence of ourge: ihis is war. The performers—actors and musi-nos alike—aim at shocking the audience, mainiyizh sound-effects: the music sornetimes reserribles

nachmne-gun fire, at other times it is alternativerock. SteLka iordanova's songsven if we cannor

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with ffie heauty oí the melody :d wilh hcsrangeness of the sound and of the !nelody: backwe are again in Ihe Balkans wherr 'var is NOT atheatre experience.

It is noc easy to pigeonhole a pruduction usi:ig'so many elements; still, expressiOflism scems [O mcihe dominating style: one that leads us hack uGerman art and theatre-making (Piscor, Brecht), Iiis uriderlined hy the rhyrhmic, toud cHniing of tcxtsin German, English and French, meant mainly wshock agairi. Jerry SneH here—for the first timc.Gilles Maheu does noc play a centr role in theconceptualization of a show, just hserving hiscompany Írom outsde—exploits as many possibli-ies oF the thearre as he can, inciuding other art,tike music, dance and Íme arts in ihc compositionoÍ ihe scenes. Ali ihis, however, docs not meanchange oÍ direction in the work oÍ Carbone 14 harather a widenirig of [he troupe's scope.

Canada's hest-kriown individuai perhirmance aihiis probably Robert Lepage, whose long-ilme aspiraionhas been to act as a bridge—not mily between thetwo main cultures of Canada, French and English.hut also between Canada and Europe. For thcscpurposes he has beeri using a variety of mearis:shifts Írom one language to another, Írom orle culwreinto another, Írom one age irito another, betwcendifferent art forms as well as directing Europc:inworks in Canada (the latest exampie vas BhebeardsCastie, Bartók's one-aci opera, staged by Lepage inToronto in Hungarian), and Cariadian works in Europc.Lepage is without any doubt a iruly experimenialartist—but with his experimental vork, he aiway.sreaches back to the past, to tradiions, Canadiinand Europeari alike. In his Plaques wctoniques hecombined che traditionai Canadian picoccupation withgeo-history and with the music al ihe rebelliousPolish romantic composer, Chopin, and wiih one oÍthe most popular sites of European ii and cukure,Venice. He eariier used the Italian moiif in his VicIof 1986.

Les Aiguilles et lopium, Lepages cne-rnan show(with music by Robert Caux) in Salle Denise Peiletier,uses episodes Írom the lives af twu arlists: a European—Jean Cocteau—and an Arnerican—Mi!es Davis--as its starting point. Both artisis had contacis whihe other continent, 100: for che tex Lepage uesextracts Írom Cocteau's Lettre aux Arnéricains undinvestigates Davis's scay in Paris. This starting paintaiready suggesis Lepage's approach to making a show.he wishes to incorporate differerit iorms, and licdisregards the houndaries of "art" und naturai sci-ences' as well. Throughout most or the 90 min':Icperformance, he is dangiing Írom r'oes in fronta framned whiie screen which reniinds os of Coctuucmirror image in Orphée, but also pruvides Lepugewith great possihiiities for usirig it aspicture frunic:Lepage acts in front of it and behind it, and liccreaies shadow-pictures (like those used iii Artaudsadmired Bali puppet iheatre); at unother point Iiithe show his body is hehind (he scrcen, whi[e liishead is ahove it, as if he were in n .wimming 1)001.The screen also serves as a projection screenwhich creates a poster-like effeci or that of a -

constructiVist painling (as when we can see parisof a trumpet scattered along iÜ. For me, the twomost remarkabie scenes were those of Lepage faH-ing Írom ihe top of a New York skyscraper (hedangies in front of the screen, and a video of ihefacade oÍ a high-rise building is projected onto thescreen), and the finai scene when he literaily getsinside the pictures. Since ihe screen is elastic, he isahitt to move Írom a two-dimensionai picture intoa three-dimensiorial one, and later srnashes it topieces. Words cannot satisfactorily describe a showthat contains such an abundance of visual arid vo-cii eiements chaiienging our traditional conceptsof classification—which have the effect of separat-ing theatrical shows, perÍormance art, instaliationand video art.

Cocteau and Davis represent artists in generalfor Lepage: iheir feeiings and Íears, their frusrracionsand their attempts to reach out for contact withother people—for which he Íound raw-mareriul inCocteau's diary-like letters. On ihe stage he realizesthis with the heip of a telephone: alone in a room,talking to someone far away—this is a trulyCocteauian solution which he elaborated irt kis LaVoix humaine. -

The title of the Lepage show mighi lead us tothink that ihere wouLd be an extensive discussionabout the use of drugs by arrists of ihe highestreputation, or 10 provoke We audience ta excuseor reject them. What we see irt the show, insicad.is a sciernifically accurace appiicacion of a shor irilLan arm behind the screen, which distances mernbersof- the audience—among ihem bus]oads of high-school students—from this escape route. The standingovatiomi after the shows, the extended run of LesAi,uiUes et I'Opium, and the crowded room far theinformai taik with the amtist after the matinéeperformance on February 18 signai that Robert Lepageis not only the "enfant tembíd' but also one of thetop favourites of Canadian theatre life.

Canada's official biiingualism, Bili 101, and Bili178 are ihe subject of Jean Marc Dalpé's bilinguaipiay nalionat CAPITALe nationale. The finalperformance script of the play is by Vivenne Laxdalfor the Thétre de la Vieille 17, comrnissioned bythe National Aris Centre with Robert Lepage asdirecior and set designer. This sequence of thirty-five scenes shows an average day in the life ofthe Canadian capicai, starting off with a toy trainhringing in the commuters (though this phenomenonis much more typicai of Toronto and Montreal)and the moming routine of a homeless man alongsidethat of a gay couple in a govemnment office. Itends with the homeless man being beaten up as aFrame suggesis that another day has passed withoutanything having changed. This series oÍ episodesshows that many civil servants are merciless in theiraspiratioris (Vicior—Robert Bellefeuiile—wants tooverthrow kis own rrlinister), corrupt and dishonest.Ali this, unfortunately, very seidom goes beyoridihe ciiché levei, and Lepage's technicai solutions-especially the siiding paneis that reveal oniy paris

of the stage arca anci create a fiimic effeci-.add clumsiness 10 an already overlong production.

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While he Naional Theatre of Craiova usedShakespeare tO comment on current evtnts, the cc-production of Thétre Franco-RoumalrlI Uniter (Un-jon Théirale cies ArtisteS Roumains)' AssociaticrtFrancaise d'Action Artistique/OdéOflThéa t deFEurope) turned io a twentieth-ceritury ciassic, esSix Personnages en quéte de.. uses Pirandelto's pkyof a simitar title as its starting polnL As in tbehalian play, here too, some actors!cheracters enerrhe theatre asking the director to let ihem presenttheir slory. They are preoccupied web ideas of so-ciat development, c!ass struggie, and revolution, antitry to incorporate them into a theatrical perform-ance on che bare stage, quoting Karl Marx arciJean-Paul Sartre as well as Paul Claudel and GustaveFlaubert (the play was performed in French).

The question of revolution, wheri reised by art-sts from Romania, inevitably leads to the subjectof their 1989 revolution, and this is where the showgets reatly exciting: far how can a yocrig compenystruggie with a question still lacking hstorical per-spective? The refrain becomes "Speak about revo-lution, this is our speciaity," which re-enacts thewrithing of the late Conciucator and his wife afterthe firing-squad shot thern, as Romania'S nationalcolours and its fiag wLth the hole irt the middiebecome props. In the course of the elevated taik,however, a toy trumpet Is blown every time theterm "revolution" comes up and, herr ori, ali \VC

are left wich is the short trumpet-scund, replaceigthe word. In the end, the actors manage to cori-vince the director that she has to h.elp them stagetheir story, and she begins to work whh chem, eventa correct their pronunciation—but thet will be an-other show.

The surprise iri these two shows is riot onty suchaccompiished performances by relatively urikrioivncompanies, but also the daring invotved in present ingtheir maerial to an audience unfamittar with alI ofthe hackground to their prociuctions White therbasic materiais were very differerit, the fact thateach had the courage to look criticatly at their recenthistory suggests maturity and prondses the sch-assurance neecied far further work andexperimentatian.

in front of a video-camera—and the picturesprojected on the screen backstage—but there arefrequent references to the show's critics, who canget in free to the show, and to the audience, too,who will be a group with a commOn experienCeby the end of the show. Abundant material fortheatre semioticians!

The other focus of attentian is the questian ofIanguage, as you might expect from a multilinguatperson who deals with the ciashes and co-existenceof differerit cuttures. The base Ianguage of Fronters4.samerwaflaS is English—ifl spite of the title iiiSpanish—hut Verdecchia very often turns to hismother tongue, either to ctarify what he wants tosay, ar to quote, or to pun or poke fun at ctichédimages of the Latina character. In the course afthe play, three languages are used, arid severalvarieties of each of them. Standard English dominateswith short passages in a broken or accented English;there is Spanish and mock-Spanish; and Frenchtoo is used: the French both of Paris and of Montreal.These switches from one language to anotherunderline Verdecchia's self-defiriitiori: 'I arn ahyphenated persori but not falling apart or, ashe put it at another point in the show: "1 am onthe border." Ori the border, it is onty natural tobe exposed to different cultures and tanguages,and the true reflection of such a situation can befound in a ptay referring 10 these cultures andusing several languages. Guitlemio Verdecchia's plt'y

clearty indicates that one . more ethriic group—thatof the Hispanic world—is ready 10 enter Canadiantheatre life, further diversifyirig heterolingual theatreactiVitieS.

Pol Pelietier's Joie could be caHed an excittngcounterpoint to Verdecchia's show. This is a one-woman performance in French, and instead ofpointing at a new phenomerion, Joie provides asummary of the past two decades of Québec theatrehistory. A special treat for a visitor whose veryfirst theatre experience in Canada was Night Cows(in English) by the same actress some ten yearsago!

Pol Pelletier's is a highly verbal theatre, veryoften reaching poetic heights, consciousty foliowing

In Fronteras americanas, Guillermo Verdecchiasthe inheritance of Quebec theatre history—and

one-man show (Tarragon Theatre. Toronto), we arccontrasting it with the traditional French one, marked

taken to a compietely different world. On theby the rigidities of Comédie Franaise-styIe acting that

occasion of the recent anniversary c'f Columbussshe mocks in the course of the show. Within Québec

ourney ta tke New World, Verdeccliie introdurestheatre, the emphasis is on the contributions of

us to this continent through the eyes o! a "hyphen:itcdwomen writers (jovette Marchessault, Nicote Brossard,

Canadian" who views North American hfe and cultureLouise Laprade and others): the actress, dressed as

as critical]y as the Latina world, wi:hout harminga clown and using the minimum of props (a big

any parties. To achieve his purpo.se, he turiis toyeIlow pillow 10 embrace or sit on, a toy trumpet

c]iché images of hoth North and South Amciice,and the cow-head mask of Les Vaches de Nuit) enacts

and gives us details of his personai history (bornpassages from their plays, provirig that there is much

in Argentina, arriving in Canada es a school bo ymore 10 theatre history than tosing onesetf among

whose name was hard to spell in an nglish schoo[,old reviews in the archives. The transitions between

visiting his home and trying to avoid inilitary service r passages are marked by narrating personat

there) as weti as the key cietes n :he history ofexperiences or hy singing a tango song in Spanish

ihe Americas.or jazz in English. The title—Joie--truly expresseS

His is a theatre about theatre ": only arcPefletier's relationship with the theatre: acting

we eye-witneSseS to his preparatian or audition -44~ and creating a show are clearly sources of joy

ryar

for her. The result is no only a hhiy successfulperformance—given ianc1ing o'.;Itioll by theaudierice at Théitre dAujourd'h'i—aflCI a re-enactment of sorne cruc ; al everus of QuIxc theatre,but also a valuahle ntw conirihuinn by un artistwho has spent several decades .vorking iri thatheare.

While Pelletier works with woids, MauricioCeledori, founder and eider of ChiIe;in Teatro deSitencio, works without words. His tniiiiing inciudesyears studying mirne tcdiriques witb Idienne Decrouxund Marcet Marceau, und then sevcrI years playingin Ariane Mnouchkinc5 Thitre dij Solcil. At thebeginning, it seemed an impossible undertaking toevoke the spirit of a poet, a great r11:I1eI of modernFrench Ianguage, in J sbow that dce. not use wordsat aji. Still Malasangre, play lxsei on tiic life oFthe French poet Artliui Rimbaud, o[ers a cornplexview of the various staes of the poes life, beginningwith his schoot years in Charlevide, through hisperiod in Africa, his reIitionsliip wirh his motherand w[th fellow poet l'iul Verlaine. to Uie wrbulentevents of the Paris Cominune.

The sixteen-memher cust—a differerit persori inthe role of the poei in every one of the four mainparts—are masters of dance, rnovemcnt theutre, mimeund acting, supported by an orchestru playing Africanand South American music that lends a strong rhythmto ihe performance. Styliz(2d movemeni. colours, make-up are equatly importanr componenu of this sweepingshow: at times we were offered spectacle of ui-iAfricari tableau with tile Ki-ig of Abyssinia on asedan-chair; another scene show cd only thedisobedient young boy fucing his rnu!ler iii traditionalblack dress; theri firnilly the mucc'r uriveited hismarhte bust. Then ve change in scenes of fast,sidling c1ance-moveiners to the bcii of the music,sometimes witli humun voices (but no vords atali), alt with hreathtaking speed 2m1 cconomy.

The open-air perforiiiance on liic grass oÍ ParcLafontaine ii-i front of un improviscd row of benchesas auditorium aliowed for a reul!y close relationshipbetween actors und audience as wel! us highly sryiizedart und nature. This is tataI theane, abie to reach0W 10 audiences of different I)ackglOUfldS, und aclear indication For ihcutre-lovers thui we have towiden our scope und inciude still new regiofls inour focus of attention.

Europeans, unforw nu e1y, arc vci y ignorunt abouttheatre activities I ri Canada (und iiideed sotneCanadians are liardiv less so), hut I hope ihis surveywi]l suggest that thev Aiould be ;iking un interestin what is going on here. Last seuson's Montrealshows iriciuded vic,iabiished cninpanies as weltas new ones ready u experirnent und offer a newvision of ui-t und life, iossing culniiai und ianguageborders, happy to reccive und liswn te) new voicesÍrom other parIs o[ the world. logether with thetheatre staff, the audiences utso deserveucknowtedgement lor filting Lhese theatres,encauraging und cekdrating theii ;irtists, und tiiusbecoming participunu in u unip'e experience oflive theutre. 0