Cispersonnages en quête d’auteurice

Five neurodivergent performers meet in the rehearsal studio to begin a new creative process. As it is not possible for them to do the unicorn show they had originally planned – since they are not unicorns – each of them comes up with ideas to break the creative deadlock they find themselves in. Caught between their artistic desires and their many ethical principles, the performers realize that their playing field seems mined and their artistic freedom rather limited. Who could extricate them from this cul-de-sac? An able-bodied actor? A magic unicorn? And what if it takes all that to get out of it?

In Luigi Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), two groups are in conflict: the actors—the professionals constructing the play—and a family shamelessly offering up their intimate little dramas as fodder. The confrontations that ensue, between identity and appropriation, lived experience and performance, truth and fiction, still resonate with us now, a full century later, when the acting craft is once again at the heart of the many debates on cultural appropriation and the legitimacy of the artist. By borrowing Pirandello’s title and the broad strokes of the play-within-a-play, Joe Jack et John dares to investigate the ruptures and reflections taking place in our society, which is moving painfully and inexorably towards realizing the ideals of equity of inclusion. The result is a very unethical comedy that doesn’t presume to clear up the surrounding confusion. What we can promise you, however, is laughter… forced, full-bodied, or both!

The company’s first visit to Le Diamant dates back to autumn 2021 for Violette, an immersive work – an innovative cross between interactive theatrical experience and virtual reality – presented at Studio Lepage Beaulieu.