Le Théâtre indépendant

Le gardien des enfants_Cr.Nicolas Biaux_3

Le Théâtre indépendant is an interdisciplinary collective whose work is at the crossroads of theater, performance and visual arts. In the spirit of expanding the spectrum of our collective narratives, the collective works with personal stories and fiction to depict a queer perspective of life, giving voice to invisibilized experiences.r. Le Théâtre indépendant seeks to unfold a dramaturgy of the intimate, awakening the sensibility of the audience and confronting diverse realities. The collective’s recent work has notably tackled the question of identity in relation to violence, seeking a form of sublimation through the embodiment of pain.

Formed in 2018, Le Théâtre indépendantis an interdisciplinary collective whose core is made up of queer artists working in the live arts : JJ Houle (Direction, National Theatre School of Canada, 2020), Charles Voyer (Acting, Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal, 2018), Léo Gaudreault (B.A. in Visual and Media Arts, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2019), Flavie Lemée (Production, National Theatre School of Canada, 2019) and Antoine Racine (M.F.A. Concordia University, 2022).

Site web Instagram Facebook

The Children’s Keeper

“I am recounting inexact things:
the silence
the keeper’s nails
Adapting to the irreversible is something that is learned.”

The Children’s Keeper is a theatrical performance questioning the traces left by violence on the bodies and minds of those who suffered from it. Alone on stage, Charles Voyer recounts memories that are often confused and painful: moments from his past that shape the diverse transformations that have occurred in his life. By going through traumatic episodes – the repeated sexual abuse he endured in daycare and his violent encounter with a snuff movies website during his teenage years — he tries to understand these moments that have disrupted his life and that are still part of him.

Like an enigmatic ritual staged within a vaporous space, he navigates the maze of his memory and invites us in his pursuit of a sense of peace and relief. As in the process of developing photographs in a darkroom, the image appears little by little, bathed in a strange reddish light. It imposes itself on our retina and becomes imprinted, like the traces left by violence on the bodies and minds of those who are victims of it.

©Nicolas Biaux

©Flavie Lemee

Duration

55 minutes

Credits

Creation of
Théâtre indépendant

Text
Charles Voyer

Directed by
JJ Houle

Interpretation
Charles Voyer

Scenography
Léo Gaudreault

Light
Flavie Lemée

Sound
Antoine Racine

Translation
Alegría Gobeil
Phoebe Fregoli

Associate producer
LA SERRE – arts vivants

Previous projects

The Children’s Keeper, 2022, Théâtre Prospero, Montreal
The Children’s Keeper, 2022, Offta, Montreal
Recipient of the Social Accelerator Award from the PuSH Festival (Vancouver)

Quartett Solo, 2020, Théâtre Prospero, Montreal
Quartett Solo, 2018, ZH Festival, Montreal

With the support of

Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Théâtre Prospero

EXTÉRIEUR/NUIT

“I hear it sometimes; my conscience knocking; me knocking here, on the inner walls of my skull. I knock from within, hoping to make a hole; a breach, which would not have to be bigger than a thimble; so that through it I could slip out of myself; leave my body and go outside, into the nakedness of my soul, to wander around like a ghost.”

EXTÉRIEUR/NUIT is a chorus play with the feel of an existential thriller. A clandestine open-air party turns into a nightmare when two inert bodies are found. Following a dislocated chronology, the play reconstructs the thread of events leading up to this fatal moment.

Borrowing the motif of a nocturnal wandering as an analogy for dysphoric disorientation, the three imprecise and forever-changing characters get lost in a nameless city, following their anxieties and uncertainties.

Through the use of ventriloquism without puppets, sound technologies, “magie nouvelle” and theater, Le Théâtre indépendant creates a sensory disturbance in the viewer, sinking them into the world of dreams. The project, informed by the author’s transness, questions existential considerations that make identity sway in a ballet of disturbing images and fleeting déjà-vu.

Credits

Creation of
Théâtre indépendant

Text
JJ Houle

Directed by
Charles Voyer

Interpretation
Gwendoline Côté
Charles Voyer
Aline Winant

Scenography
Léo Gaudreault

Lighting
Flavie Lemée

Sound
Antoine Racine

Rigging
Frédérik Dallaire Pelletier

Associated production
LA SERRE – arts vivants

Coproduction
Infrarouge

Premiere