WHAT? Unique street theatre in the Latin Quarter
WHEN? Wednesday, May 28, between 9pm and 11pm
WHERE? Emery Street between St. Denis and Sanguinet
HOW MUCH? Free!
In a city with as many festivals as Montreal it’s easy to overlook things. Sometimes, though, they surprise you. I hadn’t given much though to the Festival Transamériques, an annual dance and theatre event, until yesterday evening, when I was wandering through the Latin Quarter with a few friends. As we walked up St. Denis we noticed that Emery Street was closed off and full of people — unusual on an otherwise chilly Tuesday night. It turned out to be La Marea, a fascinating bit of street theatre that will take place again tonight, between 9pm and 11pm.
Here’s the official blurb from the FTA program:
A sequence of nine events, nine installations featuring couples or solitary figures grappling with the topsy-turvy of life. During the course of an evening, they all find themselves in the same street, living out their lives and telling their tales right in front of our eyes. The private is made public.
With La Marea, the Argentine director Mariano Pensotti reinvents street theatre and turns life itself into theatre. Left to himself and with no guide or pre-determined itinerary, the spectator is given permission to watch whatever scene strikes his fancy as he strolls from one end of the street to the other, his gaze attracted to scenes without dialogue but with surtitles projected overhead that provide access to the intimate thoughts, desires and disintegration of these characters who have been placed on display. Without saying a word this tidal wave rises slowly, surreptitiously lapping at our feet, confining us to a small island of asphalt and feeling, and forcing us to look at the city and to look at life with new eyes.
The nine scenes run simultaneously for ten minutes, accompanied by surtitles that alternate between French and English. Calling La Marea “street theatre” is a bit misleading. This isn’t theatre performed in the street in any conventional way: the storefronts of Emery have been occupied by a variety of sets, each reflecting a bit of domestic life, that give one the impression of wandering through a world of private dramas. This is the city exposed, turned inside out, appealing to the voyeuristic tendencies of the average city-dweller.
One comment
Thanks for posting this- I checked it out, very interesting piece. A great reimagining of a city space- and Montreal’s bilingual environment made for some very interesting differences between the English and French translations, such as the sleepless girl wondering how things might have been if the “FLQ”/”Communist Party” had succeeded in their coup.