A play about one man’s personal journey, Théâtre PÀP’s The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi is also a play about language, culture, and finding your identity. First performed in 1995 on the eve of the Quebec referendum, there are strong political undertones, but it is also an emotional portrait of Gaston Talbot, one troubled man played by five actors.
The play is performed in English, but in a way it is also performed in French. Although the actors are speaking English, they are using French syntax, and this has a strange effect on the audience. “People will ask us a year later, ‘do you want to translate it into English,’ and we say ‘it was in English,’” laughs Patrice Dubois, one of the actors and the company’s artistic co-director.
Written by Larry Tremblay, Dragonfly wasn’t always performed by five actors. “It was a solo at first,” explained Dubois. “I saw it as a young actor in a small venue. We recreated it with a new touch: five voices. The challenge was to keep the intimacy of the main character and put it into something more formal. It’s a way for the audience to take part in five parts of a character. They see his fragility, he is strong, he’s a child, he’s sad, he’s crazy . . . there are different portraits on stage to see at the same time, these mysterious parts inside us as an individual.”
Bringing together five people as one cohesive character can be difficult, and Dubois said that the rehearsal process is very precise because the show has a choral element to it and timing is very important.
Playing Gaston Talbot is an emotional experience for all of the actors: “Gaston Talbot is not interesting at first sight; he’s someone you’d see in the street and not stop to look at, but you get interested in his own little story,” said Dubois. “Gaston Talbot is really upset with his childhood. He says his childhood was a success, but he lies and then he tries to tell the truth.”
Bringing together five people as one cohesive character can be difficult.
Aside from Gaston’s emotional world, there is another layer of meaning in Dragonfly. “On one side it’s really emotional, and on the other side there are things to do with language. People hear their own language in a different way, and this funny side of the show is really important, too,” Dubois explained.
“When we first speak a language we have a certain way to think. There is a tension between what’s going on in our head and what’s going on in our mouths.” This cultural side of the show allows for a great deal of humour for those who speak both languages, while others are able to hear their own language in a new way.
Dubois and Théâtre PÀP artistic co-director Claude Poissant recently made a decision to tour their company’s work within Canada instead of just to Europe and are thrilled to be at the PuSh Festival where they can encounter new audiences.
The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi runs from Jan 22–25 at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. For more information visit pushfestival.ca.
