Our shipwrecked hearts 

This is not an autobiography. Nor is it an account of an identity quest or a coming-of-age story. Far from it...

Between eternal ecstasy and everyday apathy, Vivances presents an exploration of anxiety and depression as seen through the eyes of our loved ones.

On stage, unnameable shapes. People. Darkness. A ray of light pierces the shadows, illuminating their pale skins, their dark-circled eyes, and the clothes that cling to their bodies. An invasive silence overlaid by a tinnitus pervades everything, like an unbearable pressure that twists your eardrums. A pressure as heavy as a beached whale. Do you know what it’s like to feel like you’re drowning a little more every day? 

Supported by his creative colleagues, Guillaume Saindon is interested in mental health problems—in those that tend to go unnoticed, but are no less damaging. Through a complex blend of audio and video, Vivances offers a sensory representation of a descent into the depths of anxiety and depression and an exploration of the boundary with suicide. 

Actor and director Guillaume Saindon is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and the Prague Film School. In addition to theatre, he works in film and television.