Cispersonnages en quête d'auteurice • La Seizième

A group of professional neurodivergent performers meet to plan a new theatrical production. Their creative ambitions soon hit a wall: every idea they come up with is fraught with taboos and trigger warnings. Can you play a man if you’re a woman? An Italian if you’re not? Entangled in its myriad ethical principles, the troupe becomes aware that it is venturing into a true artistic minefield.

With a nod to Pirandello’s classic, Cispersonnages en quête d’auteurice takes on a bold challenge: to spark a brainstorm on the legitimacy of artists appropriating the experiences of others in their work. Against a backdrop of bizarre dialogues and moral dilemmas, this no-holds-barred comedy navigates the grey zone, pushing political correctness to its most absurd limits. Are our ideals of inclusion unshakeable in the face of a reality that is not our own?

Reviews

“That is […] the strength of Cispersonnages: playing with ambiguity, exploring serious questions in a playful and uninhibited way, taking sidesteps, asking questions without limiting themselves. ” — Le Cahier

“Each individual's struggles to carve out a respectable artistic space are presented to us factually, without exaggeration, and this is undoubtedly the play’s greatest achievement.” — Revue JEU

“With humour, [Catherine Bourgeois] effortlessly tackles, head-on, subjects like society’s privileged, social norms, racism, and freedom of expression. It’s far from ethical, but it’s delightfully well played by the performers.” — BP Arts Médias

Credits

Text Catherine Bourgeois, in collaboration with Edon Descollines, Jean-François Huppé, Hubert Lemire, Michael Nimbley, Audrey Talbot, Anne Tremblay, Pénélope Bourque, Louis Girandello, Maryline Chery, Guy-Philippe Côté and Pénélope Goulet-Simard
Direction and set design Catherine Bourgeois
Performance Maryline Chery, Guy-Philippe Côté, Edon Descollines, Pénélope Goulet-Simard, Hubert Lemire, Michael Nimbley, Audrey Talbot
Costumes and set design Amy Keith
Lighting design Jean Jauvin
Sound design Alexander MacSween
Dramaturgy advisor Sara Fauteux
Performance support and coaching Étienne Laforge
Assistant director Alexie Pommier
Set design assistant Alizée Milot
Costume design assistant Carolie Delisle
Sound Andréa Marsolais-Roy
Production director Pénélope Bourque
Surtitles translation Bobby Theodore
Stage management and technical direction on tour Pierre Tripard
Production Joe Jack et John (Montreal)
Coproduction Festival TransAmériques and Théâtre Gilles-Vigneault

Accessibility

A low-sensory stimulation room will be available every evening of the performance, starting 30 minutes before the show. The show will be broadcast live in this room. The audience will be allowed to leave and return to the theatre during the performance.

This performance includes live audio description by VocalEye, offering patrons who are blind or have low vision a live narration of the visual elements through a personal headset. The description is not audible to the general audience. Described by Stacie Steadman. Learn more at vocaleye.ca.

Box Office