What if “Frère Jacques” were to become a weapon of mass destruction? Amusing as that may seem, remember that “canon” can also mean “a decree or law”... Music as imperative: that’s the concept Olivier Choinière explores in Chante avec moi, the opening production in the National Arts Centre French Theatre’s 2011–2012 season, presented in the Theatre September 27 to October 1, 2011.

“Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,” as Congreve wrote; it has the power to fill our hearts with joy. But isn’t it also said that songs express the beat of their time, the image of their era? That was never so true as in Chante avec moi. There are 50 of them. They are beautiful, inspired, alive. They are relatively unknown, not to say unappreciated. And here they are, gathered together on the Theatre stage, joined by a surprise musical guest. The script is a song whose chorus goes like this: “I’m singing / Yes, I’m singing / Come sing along with me.” And you, the audience, are the ones being invited to sing along!

Lively, almost spontaneous, this ambitious production – definitely not a musical – features performers who respond as one to the same beat. But don’t expect to hear stirring patriotic anthems or elephantine trumpetings. Rather, it’s a simple little tune, “a harmless, light, catchy little thing, that will get stuck in your head and have you singing along in no time,” explains Choinière. And it’s even more subversive for seeming like such a charming and cheery song. It will become part of you, you’ll take it with you when you leave… prompting reviewer Bernard Wheeley (Voir) to comment, “Chante avec moi achieves its aim: to inoculate the audience with a musical theme, repeated a hundred times, that bewitches us with its primal rhythm.”

MORAL
This tale shows how pure hearts
Should avoid at all costs hearing and singing
The simple and beguiling melody of happiness.
And if you’re not convinced,
No need to test the theory:
Life itself will show you
The dangers of lofty ideals.

Olivier Choinière, who codirects this production with Alexia Bürger, is a graduate (1996) of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program. He has been involved in over 30 stage productions, most often as a playwright but also as a director and designer. He is the author of over two dozen works, including Le bain des raines (1998) and Venise-en-Québec (2006), both shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for French Drama, as well as Autodafé (1999) and Félicité (2008).

In 2000 he founded L’Activité Répétitive Grandement Grandement Libératrice (ARGGL), or “Very Very Liberating Repetitive Activity.” In spring 2007, during the NAC’s Quebec Scene regional festival, the company presented Bienvenue à (une ville dont vous êtes le touriste), a theatrical walking tour that invited visitors to discover their city not from the usual tourist perspective, but through its collective memory and its resident ghosts, dreams and nightmares.

Written and directed by OLIVIER CHOINIÈRE

Codirected by ALEXIA BÜRGER

Assistant director CHARLOTTE MÉNARD

With
MARIE BERNIER, DELPHINE BIENVENU, SABRINA BISSON, JEAN-GUY BOUCHARD, PHILIPPE BRAULT, JULIE CARRIER-PRÉVOST, SIMONE CHEVALOT, GUILLAUME CHOUINARD, FABIEN CLOUTIER, ANNIE DARISSE, DANIEL DESPUTEAU, ÈVE DURANCEAU, ÉRIC FORGET, MARIE-MICHELLE GARON, DAVID GIGUÈRE, ÉMILIE GILBERT, MATHIEU GOSSELIN, JOHANNE HABERLIN, KEVIN HOULE, GUILLERMINA KERWIN, ÈVE LANDRY, CHRISTIAN LAPORTE, JUSTIN LARAMÉE, MILÈNE LECLERC, VALÉRIE LE MAIRE, MARIKA LHOUMEAU, PIERRE LIMOGES, JEAN MAHEUX, MATHIEU MARCIL, FRANÇOIS MARQUIS, ANDRÉ MORISSETTE, IANNICKO N’DOUA, EMMANUELLE ORANGE-PARENT, FRÉDÉRIC PAQUET, CHRISTIAN PERRAULT, ISABEL RANCIER, PHILIPPE ROBERT, DANIEL ROUSSE, BRIGITTE SAINT-AUBIN, INES TALBI

And

JULIETTE DAOUD, ELIZABETH DELHER, GABRIELLE HAIDAR, ANA MORISETTE, GUNILLA PINSON, CATHERINE POLAN, VINCENT POLAN, MIA PRUD'HOMME, MARGUERITE RIEL, CHARLES ALEXANDRE THIVIERGE, ELSA VAN BLOKLAND

And a different surprise musical guest for each performance

Musical director PHILIPPE BRAULT

Choreographer LINE NAULT

Lighting designer  ERWANN BERNARD

Sound designer  JEAN GAUDREAU

Technical director  CYNTHIA BOUCHARD-GOSSELIN

Production director  ANNIE LALANDE

Produced by L’ACTIVITÉ

Length: Approximately 1 hour with no intermission

NAC THEATRE
53 Elgin, Ottawa

Tickets
Adults: $33.90 +
Students: $18.45 +
Live Rush: $12

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Information
Sylvain Lavoie
Communications Officer
French Theatre
National Arts Centre
613-947-7000, ext. 396
sylvain.lavoie@nac-cna.ca