March 19, 2007 -

“L’Armoire is all about finding your roots. It’s the story of a little girl who wants to find out where the dragons (not butterflies!) in her stomach come from.”
– Pascal Brullemans, playwright

The National Arts Centre (NAC) French Theatre Family Series continues on March 24 and 25 with L’Armoire, a new puppet show from Montreal’s Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays (creators of the young audience classics Charlotte Sicotte, presented at the NAC in January 2005, and Joël da Silva’s À nous deux!, premiered at the NAC in October 2003).

In this production, Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays (which turned 30 last year) continues its exploration of the fascinating interplay between puppets, puppeteers and live actors. For L’Armoire (coincidentally, the company’s 30th production), director Michel P. Ranger and his creative team collaborated for the first time with playwright Pascal Brullemans, widely known for his work with director Eric Jean. (Camélias, Brullemans’ adaptation of La Dame aux camélias [Camille] by Alexandre Dumas fils, was presented in Ottawa in 2001 at the Festival du théâtre des régions.)

Children are understandably curious about the things their parents try to hide from them. In L’Armoire, his first play for young audiences, Pascal Brullemans has imagined a mysterious wardrobe containing a long-forgotten past. One day, its doors swing open to reveal a brilliantly-coloured world full of memories and magic and all kinds of fantastic creatures…

Journey to the centre of a wardrobe

Céleste is fu-ri-ous! Her parents have just announced that they’re moving to another country. “We’re going home,” they tell her. “Home is right here!” retorts Céleste. And she refuses to budge. Who can blame her? Why should she leave her friends and all the things she loves to go bucketing off to the other side of the world? Honestly! And that’s the moment when her father shows her a key—the key to a wardrobe where he and Céleste’s mother have locked away their memories, a wardrobe that hasn’t been opened since Céleste was born. She determines to get hold of the key and find out what’s inside that mysterious cupboard…

In crafting this story, playwright Pascal Brullemans worked with the director, the design team and the performers/puppeteers, a collaboration that gives the show its vivid visual and dramatic appeal. It’s a technique Brullemans and director Éric Jean invented, and which they call écrire vivant—literally, “writing live.” It starts with improvisation sessions (directed or free): as the perfomers improvise, the playwright, director and designers observe them and jot down any ideas, themes, images or sounds they find particularly interesting. In this case, the improv started with a wardrobe standing alone in the middle of the rehearsal hall… and the end result was a show called L’Armoire about a young girl searching for her roots.

Inspired by visual elements from very diverse sources (including traditional Javanese wayang golek puppetry, the Russian tsars, fakirs and magicians), set designer Patrick Martel has created an imaginary world where performers and puppets are literally one and the same.

“The audience will be enchanted first and foremost by the amazing creativity of the Avant-Pays team. I’d go so far as to say that their exceptional handling of marionettes—and the things they use as marionettes—is revolutionary, if the word ‘revolution’ weren’t so charged with meaning….
Give us more!”
– Michel Bélair, Le Devoir

“More than an identity quest, L’Armoire draws us into the magical world of a child’s imagination, uncomplicated and free; the childlike curiosity that seeks to know everything, to understand everything, with a whole world just waiting to be discovered.”
– Christian Geiser, La Presse

“A metaphorical, fantastical play by Pascal Brullemans, L’Armoire is a little gem….
From the very first few minutes we fall under the spell of this first-rate show,
skilfully staged by Michel P. Ranger.”
– David Lefebvre, MonTheatre.qc.ca

L’Armoire
Written by Pascal Brullemans • Directed by Michel P. Ranger
Assistant director: Dominic Anctil / Set design, marionettes and video projections: Patrick Martel / Lighting: Marianne Brassard / Music: Guillaume Sauriol-Lacoste / Creative consultant: Michel Fréchette
Puppeteer/performers: Dominic Anctil, Isabelle Lamontagne, Marie-Ève Milot and Sasha Samar
Produced by Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays (Montreal)

Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 13:30
and Sunday, March 25, 2007 at 13:30 and 15:30
National Arts Centre / Studio
53 Elgin Street, Ottawa, ON
Recommended for ages 5 to 9
Show running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: $12 (children and adults)
On sale at the NAC Box Office, 53 Elgin Street (no service charges), through Ticketmaster (at all Ticketmaster outlets or by ‘phone, 613-755-1111) or online at www.nac-cna.ca

Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays

In each of its 30 original touring productions, Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays (founded in 1976) has offered offers audiences a unique experience of the diverse and captivating “language of puppetry.” To date, the company has given over 3,000 performances in Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick, and in France, Belgium, Germany and the United States. Several of its original productions have literally changed the face of contemporary puppetry: the hugely popular Charlotte Sicotte, and Impertinence, Les Gardiens du feu, and most recently À nous deux! Firmly committed to broadening the appeal of the art of the marionette, Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays makes regular appearances at theatre festivals and has presented numerous exhibitions about puppetry.

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For more information, please contact:
Guy Warin, Communications & Media Relations Officer
French Theatre – Canada’s National Arts Centre
(613) 947-7000, ext. 759
gwarin@nac-cna.ca