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Six actors. Nineteen months. Countless rewrites. And now, finally, eight shows of Un peu partout (Here and There) will be performed at Théâtre Cercle Molière in St. Boniface.
It’s hard to believe that all of it started with young actors standing on chairs.
“We were going from chair to chair, introducing ourselves and then talking about our middle names,” laughs actor Mikaël Beaudry. “It was very ‘theatre-y’.”
These “theatre-y” exercises built into the six performers talking about the issues that mattered most to them as they set out to create a play together. Those issues included youth representation in theatre spaces and the pressures and indecision that come with being a young person stepping into adulthood.
“We had like big posters and we just had like big idea bubbles,” says Lizzie Rochon, who plays the starring role of Isabelle in the production. “From there, we started [saying], ‘What kind of story do we want to tell? How do we take these themes and make them into a character and a story?’”
From those posters and idea bubbles, a story began to take shape where Isabelle is poised to leave her home on a journey to discover herself, only to consider the impact that it will have on her relationships with her best friend Camille (Amélie Tétrault), her sister (Madison Nelson) and her boyfriend (Andreas Detillieux). Isabelle is helped in these considerations by a taxi driver (Beaudry) who is driving her to the airport.
“We would spend like an hour or two on a singular line, just trying to figure out what words to use,” Beaudry recalls. “When we were writing these lines, some of us were like, ‘Oh, I think that this character would say this because they kind of appropriated the character. It was a very long process.”
Putting the struggle of emerging adulthood and choosing a path for one’s life is certainly not easy subject matter to dramatize, let alone perform for the actors of Un peu partout, each of whom are in the same life season as the characters. “I have a very good grasp that Isabelle is not me and I’m not Isabelle,” Rochon shares about the closeness she feels with her character, “but at the same time, it’s like Isabelle is using my emotions to tell her story and have her emotions.”
Being a part of this production has given both Rochon and Beaudry more comfort in not knowing what their future holds for them. For Beaudry, who felt certain that he would leave Manitoba, this project has reminded him of the power of his home community. “There is so much love and affection here and then there's so much worth in our little Manitoba, our little friendly Manitoba,” he smiles, “and my relationships with my friends and my parents. I feel like I need to cherish these.”
Rochon also found herself questioning her path during the creation of Un peu partout. "Since like grade 11, I was like, ‘I'm going to go get a music education degree and become a music teacher.’ That was like, so sure for so long. It was during this process... that I started to question that.”
“One of the biggest things that I’ve had to learn – partly through this play, partly through the rest of my life – is that you never know if it’s the right decision. You never know if it’s the one that’s going to lead to the least regrets. You just have to keep going. And it’s OK if it’s not sure and this one decision to leave or stay, or do this profession or do this one, that’s not going to determine the rest of my future.”
Un peu partout (Here and There) opens January 15 at Théâtre Cercle Molière in St. Boniface and runs for eight shows until January 25. The play is performed in French, and English subtitles are available on request. Tickets and more information can be found at Théâtre Cercle Molière’s website.