Imagine life without Life Savers®... Come taste Les bonbons qui sauvent la vie by Serge Boucher, directed by René Richard Cyr
March 24, 2005 -
“All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
– Leo Tolstoy
Ottawa, Ontario -- On March 31 and April 1, 2, 8 and 9, the National Arts Centre (NAC) French Theatre will welcome the latest creative collaboration between acclaimed Quebec playwright Serge Boucher (acknowledged as Michel Tremblay’s spiritual successor) and director René Richard Cyr. Having staged 24 Poses (Portraits), an earlier Boucher/Cyr production, in the fall of 2001, French Theatre is pleased to present their latest joint effort, Les bonbons qui sauvent la vie (“The candies that save lives”), produced by Montreal’s Compagnie Jean Duceppe. Featured in the outstanding cast are Maude Guérin, Michel Dumont, Véronique Le Flaguais, Hélène Loiselle, Isabelle Vincent, Denis Roy, Adèle Reinhardt and Alexandrine Agostini.
Like his earlier work—from his first play, Natures mortes, to Motel Hélène and Avec Norm, both directed by longtime collaborator René Richard Cyr—Les bonbons qui sauvent la vie foregrounds Serge Boucher’s unique and characteristic style: a painstaking reconstruction of the flaws, fractures and distortions inherent in spoken language. Through the linguistic fissures ever so precisely carved out by the playwright, the audience overhears, with breathtaking impact, the oppressive secrets that lie buried in what is left unsaid. In this fourth collaboration, René Richard Cyr unleashes the power of Boucher’s raw, hyper-realistic text with all its misunderstandings and meaningless filler; and once again the Boucher/Cyr team transcends the humdrum details of life in an “ordinary” family to address issues of indifference, emptiness, meaninglessness . . . with humour and sensitivity—great sensitivity.
“We shouldn’t be too quick to judge these characters; Boucher and Cyr themselves don’t condemn them. In a world where violence is everywhere, our refusal to open up to the misfortunes of others— even our nearest and dearest—is perhaps the ultimate act of self-protection. And have you really looked at these people? You may laugh, we may laugh (heartily) at their banal conversations and their stale jokes, but these scenes of the commonplace are faithfully drawn from real life— and here again, Boucher surpasses himself.”
Michel Vézina, Ici, November 10, 2004
“This is Boucher’s most arresting play. Be warned: you may be blown away by the way
he presents his ideas. Les bonbons qui sauvent la vie captures the everyday tragedy
of words that are left unsaid.”
Michel Bélair, Le Devoir, November 16, 2004
The drama of an “ordinary” family
France is 35 years old. She is in prison for murder. France’s situation draws her family back into the centre of her life. As the months go by, we see her in the prison visiting room, meeting with her sister Brigitte, whom she hasn’t spoken to in over two years; with her mother Raymonde, who just wants a nice peaceful life; and finally her father Robert, who instructs France to straighten up and fly right, like her sister Brigitte. These three intense scenes à deux, where the visitors, paralyzed with awkwardness, avoid any hint of the intimacy they’re convinced they’re looking for, alternate with two raucous family get-togethers, a dizzying whirl of embraces, exclamations and half-finished sentences. The stark and somehow terrifying contrast reveals a world where appearances are everything and the unspeakable legacy of distress and pain is never mentioned.
Les bonbons qui sauvent la vie is the story of an impossible family reconciliation, a powerful and provocative exploration of rejection, self-centredness, and the all-consuming need to maintain a positive public image and avoid anything that might “rock the boat.”
“Here is how I see you,’ Michel Tremblay told us some time ago. ‘Take a good look at yourselves,’ Serge Boucher now seems to add. He holds out a mirror as if it were a ring buoy. . . . Using his typical ‘E.N.G.’ approach and what he has described as ‘écriture du détour,’ Serge Boucher investigates marginalization—not the kind proudly displayed in society as proof of diversity, but the kind people drag around from earliest childhood like a ball and chain,
the kind that marks its ‘victims’ as the black sheep of the family.”
Ève Dumas, La Presse, November 2, 2004
Les bonbons qui sauvent la vie
Written by Serge Boucher / Directed by René Richard Cyr
Assistant Director and Stage Manager: Carol Gagné
Set design: Réal Benoît / Costume design: Marie-Pierre Fleury
Lighting design: Étienne Boucher / Music: Alain Dauphinais
Video: Yves Labelle / Makeup: François Cyr
Wigs: Rachel Tremblay / Costume assistant: Myriam St-Louis
Cast
Madame Duchesne: Alexandrine Agostini / Robert: Michel Dumont
France: Maude Guérin / Raymonde: Véronique Le Flaguais
Lucienne: Hélène Loiselle / Lisette: Adèle Reinhardt
Jacques: Denis Roy / Brigitte: Isabelle Vincent
Produced by Compagnie Jean Duceppe (Montreal)
March 31 and April 1, 2, 8 & 9, 2005 at 19:30 in the NAC Theatre
Show running time: 1 hour 20 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets from $30.00 (Students $16.00) On sale at the NAC Box Office (no service charges), through Ticketmaster (at all Ticketmaster outlets or by ‘phone, 613-755-1111) or online at www.nac-cna.ca Groups of 20 or more receive up to 20% off regular ticket prices. For more information, please contact (613) 947-7000, ext. 384, or grp@nac-cna.ca
The published script of Les bonbons qui sauvent la vie is available at the Librairie du Soleil, tel. (613) 241‑6999 or (819) 595‑2414.
The National Arts Centre French Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of its media partners: Le Droit, Week-end Outaouais, Radio-Canada Television, and Radio-Canada (La Première Chaîne).
Série Théâtre presenting sponsor: Desjardins
Information:
Guy Warin, Communications Officer
(613) 947-7000 or 1 866 850-2787, ext. 759
NAC French Theatre
gwarin@nac-cna.ca
