Ottawa, November 21, 2013 – Director/choreographer Brigitte Haentjens and performers Anne Le Beau and Francis Ducharme invite the audience to explore the dramaturgy of sorrow in all its forms with Ta douleur – a physical performance with very little dialogue that appeals to fans regardless of their linguistic background. It will be presented at the NAC Studio from December 4 to 7 at 8 p.m.

 

“Theatre? Dance? A bit of both? Neither one ? Whatever the category,” says Brigitte Haentjens, “Ta douleur is the expression of an inner necessity plus a strong desire – in the absence of a pre-existing script and in complete collaboration with the performers – to create. We spent two years exploring the very fertile theme of sorrow!”

 

The pain and sorrow of silence, of unbearable waiting, of breaking up, of loss and rejection, of solitude and sickness – Ta douleur cuts a fragile, organic path to the heart of the undulating, damaged landscape of sorrow and pain.

 

From incomprehension to shared suffering by way of fierce love, raving jubilation and spousal violence, two individuals learn to connect through dance. Investigating the precarious boundary that separates the territory of the self from the territory of the other, they experience in the flesh a sorrow that is hard to name, as it is physical and psychological, individual and collective, metaphysical and anthropological.

 

An act of pure creation, this highly physical theatre is punctuated by bursts of political and poetic speech, using the body as the raw material to evoke everyday situations and to strip emotions bare.

 

At times comical, at other times heartrending, Brigitte Haentjens’ choreography probes the depths of our intimate selves, exploring the sensuality, fragility and edginess of the performers Anne Le Beau and Francis Ducharme. Totally committed to their roles, they bring the audience along on a riveting journey.

 

 

 

Artistic director and choreographer: Brigitte Haentjens // Performers and collaborators: Anne Le Beau and Francis Ducharme // Dramaturge: Florent Siaud // Lighting: Marc Parent // Music: Bernard Falaise // Costumes: Julie Charland // Make-up: Angelo Barsetti // Rehearsal director: Christine Charles // Production manager: Sébastien Béland // Lighting technician: Lee Anholt // Sound technician: Éric Forget // Original presentation: Danse-Cité and Anne Le Beau // Produced by: Sibyllines

 

 

PRESS REVIEWS

“Unsettling”, “brilliant”, “explosive”, “highly sexual”!

Montreal press descriptions of Ta douleur.

 

What a thrill to see a woman of the theatre – and indeed an important one – harvesting the expressive potential of the body. The performers present a solid performance […] their physical presence, their gaze and their facial features speak volumes. One feels the body as burdened and febrile as the sorrow it bears. 

Frédérique Doyon, Le Devoir

 

With remarkable freedom and the complicity of two dancers who are also convincing actors, Haentjens presents an exploration of the body and of emotion that is an indirect continuation of her theatre work with Sibyllines. 

Sylvie St-Jacques, La Presse

 

Brigitte Haentjens directs this duo with her usual sense of rhythm and with bodies that occupy the space in ever newer ways. Radical for its simplicity, the piece nonetheless conveys the impression that the theme has been fully explored, as though the accumulation of these brief tableaux opens the way to the universal. 

Émile Jobin, Revue Jeu