the Scriptarium came to replace five years ago The Zurbansa show and a writing laboratory created in 1997 by the Théâtre Le Clou to give voice to teenagers through fictional stories of their own.
The central idea remains the same: put on a play with texts written by students from secondary 3 to 5, based on a theme developed with the curator of the year, that is to say a personality inspiring Quebecer from the artistic or other milieu.
Since 2018, the Théâtre Le Clou has, for example, received the actors Stéphane Crête and Didier Lucien, the former director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Nathalie Bondil, as well as the author and columnist Manal Drissi.
This year, the team Scriptarium appealed to a luminary of the legal world in the person of Louise Arbour, who was notably a judge at the Supreme Court of Canada and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A reflection on the judicial system
I find it a little maddening to see how people treat the justice system. I continue to think that the Canadian justice system is exemplary in many respects. Ms. Arbor confirms it: we update ourselves, we judge cases differently because of new values, we question ourselves a lot
explains Monique Gosselin, co-founder and co-artistic director of Théâtre Le Clou, as well as director of Scriptarium.
So I left with the idea that if one day we decided to do this in the public square, it would be dangerous, we would go back to medieval times.
After visiting more than fifty secondary schools in Montreal and Quebec City to give talks with Louise Arbour, the Scriptarium team asked the students to write a text on the theme of justice. The idea was to create a character who would speak up to defend an imaginary cause or accuse another character.
The students then voted for the 10 best texts in their respective classes, which were reviewed by Monique Gosselin and playwright Éric Noël. Of the approximately 500 texts submitted, only ten were selected for adaptation into a play.
Texts of unsuspected depth
Each text, reworked by Monique Gosselin and Éric Noël, will take the form of an exhibit presented before a disused court. Imaginary causes will be defended or attacked by four professional interpreters: Yann Aspirot, Maude Bouchard, Geneviève Labelle, Félix Lahaye.
Monique Gosselin was surprised by the maturity of the students and the depth of some of the topics they chose to explore. One of them chose to stage the pieces of a chess game that want to sue their creator.
For example, why do white people fight against black people? Why is the Queen forced to do everything while her husband is lounging? They make the pass to their creator to demand justice
she explains.
In another text, a teenager chose to sue a racist hotel manager who refused to accommodate an Aboriginal woman who died of cold a little later in the parking lot of the establishment.
But the most delicate text of the cohort, according to Monique Gosselin, is that of a teenager who decided to take sides with Carl Girouard, the author of the saber attack in Old Quebec which killed two people on October 31, 2020. It’s very delicate, because we’re going to play that in Quebec
explains the director.
In fact, it’s the sword that comes to speak [pour défendre son propriétaire]. He says “listen, I had a friend who was taking care of me and one day he went to dress up as a samurai. But it wasn’t him that night.”
This thesis of the double personality was moreover presented by the defendant himself during the first day of his defence.
the Scriptarium 2022 will be presented at the Salle Fred-Barry of the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, from April 28 to May 6. The play will then be presented at the Théâtre jeunesse Les Gros Becs in Quebec City, from May 11 to 13.
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca