Rather a ditch
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A sensory, visceral, and existential solo echoing the silence of a deep solitude. This moving performance brings together Céline Bonnier, Caroline Monnet, and Clara Furey.
“To die… to go into the darkness… if it is darkness… to go to the river… if it is a river… but alone and without the illusion of love… naked and disastrously free…” – Howard Barker
Echoing Steve Reich’s hypnotic Different Trains, which questions the duality and fragility of our destinies, Clara Furey responded to Olivier Bertrand’s invitation for the first Montreal edition of the ALBUM Project and created Rather a Ditch, a piece in which several “existential dance experiments” explore the porosity between life and death.
The choreographer offers here a hypnotic work that plunges the spectator into the heart of absence. Céline Bonnier slides from one state to another, exploring interior landscapes and finding radiance in enveloping darkness. Seemingly absent from herself, sinking into her inner soul, and playing with radical disembodiment, the actress, a long-time accomplice of Clara Furey, lands herself once more in the performance game. An entity in its own right, the wall of imposing fragility imagined by Caroline Monnet vibrates with us throughout the piece, dialoguing with Karine Gauthier’s precise and enigmatic lighting and revealing questions about what is past and what remains, still, terribly present.
This show is presented in conjunction with Dog Rising !
Clara Furey
Parbleux
Théâtre du Trillium
Original idea Olivier Bertrand
Conception and artistic direction Clara Furey
Co-creation and performance Céline Bonnier
Sonic conception Jean-François Blouin
Sonic research Ida Toninato
Set design Caroline Monnet
Lighting design and technical direction on tour Karine Gauthier
Costume design Michèle Hamel
Outside eyes Andrew Tay, Christopher Willes
Lighting design assistance Tim Rodrigues
Technical direction during the creation Maude Bernier
Distribution A Propic | Line Rousseau & Marion Gauvent
Production Clara Furey
Executive production by Parbleux
Partners and creation support Centro per la Scena Contemporanea (CSC) de Bassano del Grappa (Italie/Italy), Danse à la Carte (Montréal, Canada), La Chapelle – Scènes Contemporaines (Montréal, Canada), Parbleux (Montréal, Canada)
Co-production Festival TransAmériques (Montréal, Canada), La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines
The creation of this work was made possible thanks to the financial support of Conseil des Arts du Canada et du Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec