Everyone knows Jacqueline Kennedy, but do we know who she really was? A true American icon, the former First Lady of the United States lived in the glare of the spotlight, ever conscious of the scrutiny of the camera lens. Paradoxically, the thousands of images of her disclose very little of the enigma that was Jackie. This groomed and impeccable figure is the starting point for playwright Elfriede Jelinek: her Jackie reveals how she staged her life, how her clothes became her signature, how the obliteration of the body beneath her protective costumes freed her from the burden of existence. But gradually her carefully prepared speech reveals, as fragmented memories and subconscious thoughts emerge, a yawning abyss and an unfathomable suffering that threaten to engulf her… not to mention the entire Kennedy family, and the blonde Marilyn.

MORAL
IT’S ALL WELL AND GOOD
TO HAVE CHARM, BREEDING, AND OTHER SUCH TALENTS
BESTOWED BY THE BENEVOLENT FATES,
BUT THEY’RE NOT WORTH MUCH
WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR PERSONAL HAPPINESS
IF THERE’S NOTHING BEHIND THEM
BUT THE IMAGE THAT CONCEALS YOUR TRUE SELF.

Jackie is the 20th production directed by Denis Marleau to be presented at the National Arts Centre (NAC) since 1989. Here, the former NAC French Theatre artistic director (2000–07) and codirector Stéphanie Jasmin investigate the inner torment of a woman who succeeded in creating an air of mystery behind a perpetual smile. Thanks to Marleau and Jasmin, we see Jackie not only in the public eye but in the wings, as if hounded by the cameras, a subject both public and private. The mask is slipping not just from Jackie, but from America as a whole. An unsettling play about the very topical issue of media images and the obscene and pitiless gaze of those who feed on them.

The play is not a biography of Jackie Kennedy: in her series of Princess Plays, Elfriede Jelinek (recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature) portrays legends, women whose voices were scarcely heard, who step out of their fairy-tale context where “all’s well that ends well” to express their true selves. Though the controversial Austrian playwright is a feminist, her princesses are not: they have assimilated the dominant cultural attitudes, which they then play back, with a deprecating and paradoxical humour that makes their situation all the more tragic. The five plays in the series share one of Jelinek’s favourite themes: women’s inability to take control of their own lives in a world where they are relentlessly and exaggeratedly stereotyped.

Elfriede Jelinek gained popularity with her novels Die Liebhaberinnen (1975; translated as Women as Lovers, 1994), Die Ausgesperrten (1980; Wonderful, Wonderful Times, 1990) and Die Klavierspielerin (1983; The Piano Teacher, 1988), an autobiographical novel that was made into a film directed by Michael Haneke (2001). Her novels portray a world without pity, a setting of violent domination and submission, of hunter and hunted; they illustrate how the clichés of the entertainment industry infiltrate our consciousness and numb our resistance to class injustice and sexual domination.

Sylvie Léonard is Jackie. On November 2, the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre/AQCT (the Quebec association of theatre critics) presented her with its Critics’ Choice award for Best Performance by an Actress (Montreal) for her outstanding portrayal. In a news release, the AQCT noted, “[Ms. Léonard] confounded the skeptics, first by admirably meeting the challenge of working with Denis Marleau for the first time, and second by taking ownership of Jelinek’s demanding text with exceptional confidence. Her Jackie Kennedy was unshakeable, charming, always in control, yet constantly on the verge of falling apart, shattering into a thousand pieces, or collapsing tragically.” An extremely versatile actress, Sylvie Léonard is well known to Quebec television audiences: in the past 30 years she has starred in numerous made-for-TV dramas and children’s shows (Terre humaine, L’Héritage, Montréal PQ, L’Amour avec un grand A and the popular series Un gars, une fille for which she won four Gémeau awards). Her film credits include Karmina II, Tante Aline and L’Âge des ténèbres. She has also appeared in over 30 successful stage productions.

 

© Stéphanie Jasmin

© Stéphanie Jasmin

“The character’s full complexity comes through in jarring non sequiturs, disparate ideas, and comments ranging from the serious to the banal—and yet not really so far apart. Whether she’s talking about an Oleg Cassini dress, writer Sylvia Plath’s suicide or Marilyn Monroe’s sensuality, gossiping about her sisters-in-law, grieving over her miscarriages, or enumerating the drugs she needed to keep going, Jackie is really talking about only one thing: the status of women.”
Christian Saint-Pierre, Voir

Written by
ELFRIEDE JELINEK

From
DRAMES DE PRINCESSES : LA JEUNE FILLE ET LA MORT IV 

Translated by
MAGALI JOURDAN
MATHILDE SOBOTTKE

Directed by
DENIS MARLEAU
STÉPHANIE JASMIN

With
SYLVIE LÉONARD

Sets, Props and Video
DENIS MARLEAU
STÉPHANIE JASMIN

Costumes
ISABELLE LARIVIÈRE

Lighting
MARC PARENT

Music and Soundscape
NICOLAS BERNIER

Makeup and Hair
ANGELO BARSETTI

Assistant Director
MARTIN ÉMOND

Coproduced
UBU COMPAGNIE DE CRÉATION by
ESPACE GO

Presented in collaboration with
Radio-Canada

Technical Director
FRANCIS LAPORTE

Stage Manager
FRANÇOIS ROY

Cameraman
OLIVIER SCHMITT

Set and Props Assistant
FRANCIS LAPORTE

Wardrobe Assistant
STÉPHANIE CLOUTIER

Video Consultant
PIERRE LANIEL

Wigmaker
RACHEL TREMBLAY assisted by

CHANTAL McLEAN
Cutter

JULIO MEJIA
Set Builders

FRANCIS LAPORTE

MARTIN LAPOINTE

Technician
STÉPHANIE ARSENAULT

German Language Coach
CAROLINE GAGNON

Archival Researcher
AURÉLIE HERMAN

Length
1 hour 5 minutes with no intermission

NAC THEATRE
53 Elgin, Ottawa

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

NAC Box Office
(Monday to Saturday, 10am to 9pm)
www.nac-cna.ca

Ticketmaster
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Groups (10 persons or more)
613-947-7000, ext. 634
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Subcriptions
613-947-7000, ext. 620

Sylvain Lavoie
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French Theatre
National Arts Centre
tel.: 613-947-7000 ext 396
toll free: 1-866-850-2787 ext 396
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