On an island in the heart of the Americas, during a party that lasts three days and three nights, many beings evolve, meet, exist side by side, love, come into being, and die. In this microcosm of the world, they are of various origins, generations and social backgrounds and are linked by thirst: thirst for absolutes, for love, for justice, for creating, for rising above, for believing, for hope; thirst for another or for being another. Their voices and thoughts come together in a prodigious orchestration, like a musical partition whose breath is immutable.
With SOIFS Matériaux, adapted from Soifs, the first book of acclaimed writer Marie-Claire Blais’s fictional cycle, directors Denis Marleau and Stéphanie Jasmin wish for this unique voice, which unfolds in long “sequence sentences” of striking beauty and spellbinding power, to be heard directly on stage. Marie-Claire’s writing is full of sights and sounds, her kaleidoscopic and sensitive vision of the world explores the most intimate dimensions of her characters, as well as the great human, social and political questions they are confronted with. Embodied and carried by over twenty actors, this performance unfurls in a great scenic form in which music and images also play key roles, resulting in a vast symphony of modern times.
Established in Montreal in 1982, UBU compagnie de création is a free-form production structure. Its creations offer audiences a vast array of projects and events, ranging from the exploration of unpublished works or repertory theatre to opera, and from video installations to effigy theatre.
The National Creation Fund’s investment of $107,000 allowed the creative team to produce additional video footage that formed an integral part of the work’s visual design, expanded the musical component by engaging a composer and several musicians, and provided additional time to refine the integration of these new video and music elements into the live performance.
An UBU creation.
In coproduction with Festival TransAmériques and Espace GO.
In partnership with the National Theatre School of Canada.
With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts New Chapters program.
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.
Upcoming Performances
January 24 to February 16, 2020: ESPACE GO (Montreal)
Previous Performances
May 31 to June 3, 2019: Premiere at ESPACE GO (Montreal), presented by Festival TransAmériques
SOIFS, l'impressionnant cycle romanesque de Marie-Claire Blais, est une oeuvre monumentale qu'on imagine mal résonner au théâtre. Cette...
