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La mouette

Landmark play illuminated by Catherine Vidal

Apr 12, 2024

Babs Asper Theatre 1 Elgin Street Ottawa Canada

Caroline Robert and Vincent Morisset - Studio AATOAA

In-person event
Français
Ages 14+

Performance options	Start time	Language	Availability
Friday, April 12, 2024	10:00 am	French	Seats available

“The egg hatches ”

Do you know Chekhov’s La mouette (The Seagull)? Together with ten performers, director Catherine Vidal sensitively unfurls the wings of this fascinating theatrical bird. A timeless classic revisited; a journey to the heart of art, creativity, and human frailty.

The young playwright Treplev is in love with the actress Nina, who secretly loves the famous writer Trigorin, lover of the great tragedienne Arkadina, Treplev’s mother. Drama of manners on a hellish wheel, intergenerational confrontation, theatrical game of mirrors? Attempting to grasp The Seagull means accepting that it will ultimately elude you. Catherine Vidal and her translator colleague Guillaume Corbeil have approached the play more like a fantastic “living laboratory” where the Russian author objectively presents the characters, their dramas, and their fragile humanity. So it will be up to us, the audience, to come up with a diagnosis.

Reserve now to guarantee availability!

$ 15 / student (HST included)

Financial assistance

Arts Alive has limited financial aid available for schools in need which may cover, for example, the cost of workshops, tickets, or transport to matinees. Schools may request financial assistance on their registration form, and will be asked to briefly explain their financial need. An Arts Alive representative will follow-up with all schools requesting financial assistance.

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Adults & chaperones

1 Free adult per 15 students

Free admittance for special needs assistants

$ 15 (HST included) for additional chaperons At the discretion of the National Arts Centre

Payment deadlines

3 weeks before the performance

Full payment is required by the payment deadline. The NAC reserves the right to cancel any orders submitted but not paid for by the payment deadline.

Seating

There are no reserved seats for NAC student matinee performances.

Instead of tickets you will receive a letter of admission and groups will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis at the performance.

The letter of admission will be issued upon receipt of full payment.

If you have any questions, please contact us at education@nac-cna.ca

Artists

Directed by Catherine Vidal
Directed by Catherine Vidal

Mountaineer of the human condition

With her company, aptly named Cœur battant (“beating heart”), Catherine Vidal explores the vagaries of the human condition. The choices and actions of members of her species are the basis of her creative process, which translates to the stage as highly physical performance. The stage adaptation (2009) of Agota Kristof’s Le grand cahier (The Notebook) marked the significant start of her practice.

She has collaborated with Quebec author Étienne Lepage on several projects: Robin et Marion, L’idiot (based on the novel by Dostoyevsky) and Le cœur en hiver, a puppet theatre adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen (Louise-Lahaye Prize). Eager to explore major works of contemporary world theatre, she has taken on the writings of Scottish playwright David Harrower (Des couteaux dans les poules [Knives in Hens], for which she received the 2013 award for best direction in Montréal from the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre), Austrian Thomas Bernhard (Avant la retraite [Eve of Retirement]), Norwegian Arne Lygre (Je disparais [I Disappear]), Italian Stefano Massini (Chapitres de la chute – Saga des Lehman brothers [The Lehman Trilogy], co-directed with Marc Beaupré), Italian Carlo Goldoni (Les amoureux [The Lovers]), and American Katori Hall (Au sommet de la montagne [The Mountaintop]).

In 2016, she was the second recipient of the Jean-Pierre Ronfard Scholarship and, in 2020, the inaugural recipient of the Josette-Marchessault Prize, which recognizes the contribution of women theatre artists. She is also a professor at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal.

Productions directed by Catherine Vidal and presented at the NAC:
November 2017: Je disparais, by Arne Lygre January 2016: Le cœur en hiver, by Étienne Lepage, adapted from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen March 2015: S’appartenir (e), an all-female theatrical and literary event December 2012: Le grand cahier (The Notebook), adapted from the novel by Agota Kristof
NAC media featuring Catherine Vidal
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Written by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Catherine Vidal
Translation André Markowicz and Françoise Morvan
Adaptation and dramaturgical collaboration Guillaume Corbeil
With Simon Beaulé-Bulman, Nathalie Claude, Frédéric Desager, Renaud Lacelle-Bourdon, Macha Limonchik, Igor Ovadis, Olivia Palacci, Daniel Parent, Madeleine Sarr and Mattis Savard-Verhoeven 
Assistant director Alexandra Sutto
Sets Geneviève Lizotte
Costumes Wendy Kim Pires
Lighting Étienne Boucher
Sound Francis Rossignol
Makeup and hair Justine Denoncourt-Bélanger
Director, Treplev’s play Sophie El Assaad
Producer NAC French Theatre
Co-producer Prospero and Cœur Battant

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Learning and engagement at Canada’s National Arts Centre is made possible through the support of many generous individuals and organizations from across the country. Arts Alive is generously supported by the Azrieli Foundation, the Government of Nunavut, Canadian North, Calm Air, The Turnbull Family Community Building Foundation, and The Thomas Sill Foundation. Thank you also to Grant and Alice Burton, Canada Life, A Donor-Advised Fund at the Community Foundation of Ottawa, Friends of the NAC Orchestra, Donors to the NAC Foundation's Future Fund, The Janice and Earle O’Born Fund for Artistic Excellence, and the donors and sponsors of the NAC’s National Youth and Education Trust, the primary resource for youth and education funding at the National Arts Centre.

La mouette

Landmark play illuminated by Catherine Vidal

Artists

Join our email list to stay up-to-date on our Schools and Home Learning programming

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Support Performing Arts Learning and Engagement!

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