The return to theatre, where feeling meets meaning
I have been a curator of theatre since 1992, when I programmed my first season at the National Arts Center in Ottawa. Now, while in Vancouver, I’m happy to reprise this role for Théâtre la Seizième: through the preparation of this eclectic season of plays, and through the interim artistic and general direction of the company, while Esther Duquette completes her maternity leave, returning in February 2022.
The whole theatre team can’t wait to see you again, to be with you again. We hope you’re excited to be with us, too! For a while, our community spaces had to close their doors. Now, the world is opening up: let’s get together again as before, in complete safety.
This season we’re bringing you some truly memorable theatrical moments, filled with meaning and feeling.
To kick off our reunion, we put you, the audience, centre-stage with Nombre, where you will meet each other. You will be asked to take part in the collective construction of a world that will be made of the stuff of who you are, a micro-society built of shared experience.
With ZERO, come experience a meeting of generations. With humor and sensitivity, Mani Soleymanlou, a man of many talents, becomes the conduit between his Iranian father and his native-born son: what is this link that binds us to one another? Exiled first in France and now Quebecois by choice, Mani speaks of acceptance of the other, of the construction of a more tolerant world.
Come to the meeting between Marie-Thérèse Fortin and Gabrielle Roy. La Détresse et l’Enchantement is the last work of the great Manitoba-born novelist: a woman’s journey of self-discovery, tracing the victories obtained by Francophone minorities and women at the beginning of the last century. An exceptional actress. Pure theatrical joy.
Finally, with S’effondrent les vidéoclubs, you’ll have a front row seat to experience the end of an era with this story of a village at a crossroads, a final meeting place, in which the characters try to come to terms with the vicissitudes of existence, against a backdrop of the natural world, trampled by our destructive footprints. Brazen documentary spin.
Are you a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or just curious about what la Seizième has to offer young audiences in British Columbia? For younger children, Le merveilleux voyage d’Inès de l’Ouest features a very bright young girl; on tour in the spring with an in-theatre family show in March. For the older ones, also on tour in the spring, participatory theatre meets the classroom in La question du devoir. A philosophical dialogue is at the heart of this artistic proposition centred on engagement.
We’ve come through a very difficult time. We’ve been estranged from one another. Let’s find our bearings together. Do you want to feel again? To come together? To share?
Make your way to the theatre and come face to face with the other!
Alain Grégoire
Interim Artistic and Managing Director
