|
In co-production with Espace Malraux/Scène nationale
de Chambéry et de la Savoie, Centre culturel de Villefranche-sur-Saône,
L’Yonne-en-Scène (France) and Théâtre
du Vieux-Terrebonne (Quebec)
Pierre Avezard, nicknamed Petit Pierre (1909-92), was born prematurely
– “unfinished,” as he would say. Half-blind, almost
deaf and mute, he couldn’t learn to read and write. He was
taken out of school when he was seven and provided with the trade
of innocents: cowherd. In the fields, Petit Pierre observed nature,
animals, and men at work. He saw that machines invaded daily life,
and that the world was constantly changing.
Everything that moved, on paws, on wheels, or by other means, was truly fascinating to him. In solitude, he spent his time analyzing, dissecting, and reproducing movement: first in his mind, and then. . .
While
the world was going through the most horrible times, Petit Pierre
spent almost forty years creating a merry-go-round, a poetic machine
of unique beauty and so mechanically complex that even engineers
had difficulty explaining it. A masterwork of art brut, Petit Pierre’s
merry-go-round is a thought-provoking metaphor for the evolution
of humankind in the twentieth century.
“Through the story of Pierre Avezard, known as Petit Pierre, a cowherd who built an enchanted world with his own two hands, Suzanne Lebeau commits herself to childhood and dreams. And we follow her. . . From this factual point of departure, Suzanne Lebeau has written a text with two voices, in which the personal story of Petit Pierre is told in parallel with the grand sweep of the century’s history. It is a magnificent text (and the director, in turn, transforms it into the carrousel by endowing it with form, movement, life), which speaks implicitly of exclusion and love, of dreams and wars, of a tiny country village and the universality of the time that passes and the time that remains.”
Orianne Charpentier, Le Monde.
 “Poetic. Polished. Intelligent. With Petit Pierre, the Quebecers in the company Le Carrousel work together marvellously to get a room full of kids, snatched away from the turbulent games of the playground, to hold their breath for an entire hour. A beautiful story is told, full of poetry and great history lessons: history with a big “H” and the other kind, that of Pierre’s life.”
Isabelle
Mastin, La Voix du Nord.
“Everyone will take something with them of this moving show called Petit Pierre. You gave him a voice that life did not give him. I greatly appreciated the intelligence of the direction, which seems to be totally transparent. God, how much work it takes to be both so light and so serious! I loved all these levels of reading, this layered confection of this little man’s story and our own stories, as we are also little people before history.”
Pierre
Lecarme, Le Dauphiné libéré.
“It must be said: Petit Pierre is not theatre for children. It’s theatre, pure and simple. True theatre. Marvellous theatre. . . The emotion and truth of the actors’ play, the simplicity and ingenuity of the set, the intimacy of the lighting – it all transports the audience into the story of a man who was different, solitary, charming, and ingenious, who lived through the history of his century more with his instinct than with reason.”
L'Union,
Reims.
Maude
Desrosiers
 A 2001 graduate of the Option-théâtre program at Collège Lionel-Groulx in Sainte-Thérèse, Maude Desrosiers has an impressive range. During her training, she stood out for her performance of La Patronne in Cinq nô modernes by Mishima, directed by Brigitte Haentjens. Since leaving school, Maude Desrosiers has been on stage in Le tout pour la toux at Théâtre Tout à Trac and on television in Mon meilleur ennemi. She was in the cast of the film La peau blanche in 2003. Maude Desrosiers joined the Petit Pierre team in the fall of 2003, replacing Margaret McBrearty, and was happy to be reunited on stage with two fellow former students.
Emilie
Dionne
 In the Option-théâtre program at Collège Lionel-Groulx in Sainte-Thérèse, Emilie Dionne was often chosen to play lead roles (Juliet, Phaedra, etc.). It was therefore not surprising that two of her teachers hired her for her first professional engagements when she graduated from the school in the spring of 2001. The following summer, at the Chapiteau d’Oka, she played in a show for young audiences, Le Grand Monde, written and directed by Ghyslain Filion; at the same time, Gervais Gaudreault invited her to become part of the Petit Pierre team. It’s a promising start for this young actress who studied classical ballet for ten years before choosing theatre.
Ludger
Côté
 Ludger Côté discovered the theatre with the Troupe des Treize at Université Laval, where he studied microbiology from 1993 to 1997. After completing a master’s degree in microbiology, he entered the Option-théâtre program at Collège Lionel-Groulx in Sainte-Thérèse, where he was chosen to play lead roles (Macbeth, Treplev, Perdican). While he was in school, he played acted in four plays with the promising company Théâtre des Fonds de Tiroirs in Quebec City, including Le Cid maghané by Réjean Ducharme, directed by Frédéric Dubois and recently presented at Salle Fred-Barry and Périscope. By the time Ludger Côté graduated, in the spring of 2001, he was already an experienced actor.
| Text
|
Suzanne
Lebeau |
| Director |
Gervais
Gaudreault |
| Assistant director |
Robert
Vézina |
| Cast
|
Ludger
Côté, Maude Desrosiers, Emilie Dionne
|
|
Set and props |
Francine
Martin |
| Costumes |
Marie-Pierre Fleury |
|
Lighting design |
Dominique
Gagnon |
|
Sound environment |
Nicolas Rollin |
|
Hair
and make-up |
Pierre Lafontaine |
|
Set and stage manager |
Martin Jannard |
|
Lighting manager
|
Dominique Gagnon |
| Assistant lighting electrician |
Rafael Mendoza |
|
Sound manager |
Éric Le Brec'h |
|
Set construction |
Productions Yves Nicol |
|
Props production |
Sylvie
Boucher, Antoine Chouinard, Paul Duhaime, François
Gosselin, Martin Huot, Jackie Morin, Jean-
Philippe Morin, Claire Meilleur |
| Stage mechanisms |
Roger Desgagnés, Gérard Dostie, Martin Giguère |
Production team for experimental performances at Théâtre du Vieux-Terrebonne
|
Éric Bourgeau, Christian Collin, Eric Gendron,
Vincent Lavoie, Sylvin Sévigny |
| Special collaboration |
Léon Avezard, Caroline Bourbonnais (La
Fabuloserie), Laurent Danchin |
Le Carrousel thanks
|
Valérie Anne Fiset, who let us use the set of Contes à rebours in our exploratory phase, Michel Maher for lighting assistance, Michel Casang for sound recording of the merry-go-ground, Pierre-Yves Dupuis and Jean-Guy Viau, and École des Saint-Anges, École des Quatre-Vents, and École la Sitelle. |
|
| PREMIÈRE |
| |
Petit
Pierre by Suzanne Lebeau
Premiered on January 15, 2002 by Le Carrousel at Espace Malraux – Scène nationale de Chambéry et de la Savoie
In co-production with Espace Malraux – Scène nationale de Chambéry et de la Savoie, Centre culturel de Villefranche-sur-Saône, Yonne-en-scène (France), and Théâtre du Vieux-Terrebonne (Québec).
|
| |
| |
| TOUR HISTORY |
| 2001-02 SEASON |
| Two international festivals |
- Tour in France: Chambéry, Villefranche-sur-Saône,
Auxerre, Nanterre, Vitry-sur-Seine, Béthune, Narbonne,
Voiron, Le Havre, Reims (Festival Méli'Môme)
- In Quebec: Terrebonne, and Carrefour international de
théâtre
|
| 2002-03 SEASON |
| Montreal première at Maison Théâtre |
- Tour
in France: Genève, Épinay-sur-Seine, Grande-Synthe,
Brest, Décines, Épernay, Villefontaine, Béthoncourt,
Mulhouse, Le Creusot, Arles, Tarbes
- In
Quebec: Montréal (Maison Théâtre),
Beloeil, Lachenaie
|
| 2003-04 SEASON |
| Presented as part of the City of Montreal’s Jouer dans l’Île program |
- Tour in France: Blanquefort, Gradignan, Blagnac, Lorient, Sarzeau, Tremblay
en France, Redon, Vire, and Thonon les Bains
- Tour in Quebec: Longueuil, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Valleyfield, and Sainte-Thérèse
- As part of the City of Montreal’s Jouer dans l’Île program:
Maisons de la culture Ahuntsic/Cartierville
and Mercier and the boroughs of Outremont and Sainte-Geneviève
|
2004-05 SEASON |
- Tour in Quebec : New Richmond, Rimouski, and Baie-Comeau.
|
2006-07 SEASON |
| One international festival |
- Tour in Spain
Festival Teatralia in Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, and Villanueva de la Cañada; Valencia.
|
| |
| PUBLICATION |
|
PETIT PIERRE in Mexico
October 30 to November 18, 2007
Universal Forum of Cultures/National Arts Centre/Monterrey
October 30 – 2:00 p.m. (sc) – 7:00 p.m. (gp)
October 31 – 2:00 p.m. (sc) – 7:00 p.m. (gp)
November 1 – 2:00 p.m. (sc) – 7:00 p.m. (gp)
November 2 – 2:00 p.m. (sc) – 7:00 p.m. (gp)
November 3 – 2:00 p.m. (sc) – 7:00 p.m. (gp)
November 4 – 2:00 p.m. (sc) – 7:00 p.m. (gp)
Escenario 2007/Teatro Juárez/Guanajuato
November 12 – 7:00 p.m. (gp)
November 13 – # (sc) – # (sc)
Centro cultural del Bosque - INBA/Teatro Julio Castillo/Mexico City
November 17 – 1:00 p.m. (gp)
November 18 – 1:00 p.m. (gp)
| MARKET |
PERIOD |
CONTACT PERSON |
| Mexico |
To be confirmed |
Odette Lavoie |
|
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