Before a play or concert, artists usually do a media interview tour. The public is curious to know their creative process, their motivations, their doubts…
However, there is little interest in the person who sits in the dark and watches the spectacle.
This spectator lurking in the shadows is you and me.
We have entered the door of a theater or a concert hall, we have wisely taken our place, and we wait impatiently for the lights to go out, hoping for the magic to happen.
But why are we here, exactly? What did we come to look for?
This is the question asked by cultural journalist Émilie Perreault, host of the daily There will always be culture on ICI Première. Émilie began to become interested in the positive effects of art with her book Do useful workin 2017. At the time, she was the cultural columnist on Paul Arcand’s show, at 98.5.
In her book, she gave a voice to people who had been moved by a work of art and she introduced them to the artist who had created this work which was so decisive in their lives.
The journalist confided that it was a play, Enigmatic variations by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, who had also pushed her to become a cultural columnist. She spoke of a real enlightenment when describing what she felt watching the play of Guy Nadon and Michel Rivard.
The book Do useful work then gave rise to a documentary series which had three seasons, and which is impossible to watch without a big box of tissues at your side.
When the magic happens
I interviewed Émilie Perreault when her book came out. Her comments at the time show that she has a lot of ideas: “I’m not an artist,” she told me seven years ago. I identify more with the viewer and I find it great to highlight all these people. They are the ones who bring culture to life, who travel, who go to see the works, the shows. But the camera is always on the other side. »
That’s exactly what the show is about. The willing suspension of disbeliefpresented at Jean-Duceppe these days, and which will be repeated in November at the Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts.
For an hour, the journalist talks to us about the transformative power of art from the point of view of those who look at, listen to or receive a work.
Émilie is fascinated by the process that ensures that the viewer accepts convention. Let him forget the work, the fatigue, the stress, the more or less comfortable seat or the neighbor who develops his candy. And he is caught up until he loses track of time when the magic happens.
We all remember one of those evenings where we left a play or a concert completely energized. It’s true that it’s magical.
Émilie Perreault, who is also the author of the book Essential service: How to take care of your cultural health, insists: she is not an artist. In her show, the journalist questions the tenacious myth of the critic who is “a sympathetic failure”, to use the words of Robert Charlebois, while being aware of the irony of making these remarks standing on a scene…
With finesse, she also addresses the difficult relationship between the critic and the artist, a relationship that one would say is impossible because it is so full of incomprehension and frustration.
No, critics are not frustrated artists, recalls Émilie Perreault. These are people who deeply love art, who are nourished by it, and whose job consists of explaining and dissecting a work while sharing their enthusiasm and their criticisms with the public.
I would like the creators to see this show and take Emilie’s outstretched hand to reestablish this not always easy dialogue.
A statement that carries
My fellow critics will no doubt tell you about the naked staging, the funniness of Marc Labrèche as narrator or the tremendous confidence of Émilie Perreault on stage.
I would simply like to say a word about the place where the show is presented: behind the scenes of the Jean-Duceppe theater. We find ourselves in a space that is usually inaccessible, between the stage and the room, in this gap that Émilie is trying to fill with her show. This is a very ingenious choice.
Everyone has their own way of enjoying a show. I rely on two criteria: do I talk about it again once I get to the restaurant? And do I still think about it several days after seeing it? If I answer yes to these two questions – and this is the case with Émile Perreault’s show – then the target has been reached.
I want to give Émilie a little advice in closing: buy yourself a suitcase, dear colleague! I have the impression that your show could go around the world because your words are so universal, as is the discussion it provokes.
What do you think ? Participate in the dialogue
reference: www.lapresse.ca