Me Talking to Myself in the Future
Marie Brassard (Montreal)
Presented by Theatre Junction
Theatre/Music/Video
November 14-17, 2012
“…a must-see-at-least-twice [show]” – The Montreal Gazette
From the origins of the world, to tales of childhood and altered states induced by morphine, Me Talking to Myself in the Future is a poetical piece reflecting upon time and death. A surreal self-portrait, this solo performance also featuring musicians performing a live score, is constructed as a dream conversation between actress Marie Brassard and an imagined old woman traveling back in time. Desire, pain, drugs, day or night dreams; all trigger imagination and open a breach into the borders of distorted states. Along the sea, a field of red poppies leads to an odd forest. In the future, a dying old lady drifts among the thoughts of a woman in the present. As the wind blows over their hometown, the child they both once were invents a world where ballerinas dance with worms, wild animals freeze in space and rabbits run in a yellow sky.
Marie Brassard is one of Canada’s foremost theatre artists. For the past 15 years, she has created and performed innovative, imagistic theatre and film for Canadian and international audiences, using dance, music, sound, and lighting as ways of dislocating linear narrative. For more than a decade she has collaborated with playwright/director Robert Lepage in productions of The Dragon’s Trilogy, Polygraph, The Seven Streams of the River Ota, and The Geometry of Miracles. Marie Brassard is Artistic Director of INFRAROUGE and has previously performed her renowned works Peepshow and The Invisible at Theatre Junction GRAND.
“[Brassard] is a ferociously original, irresistible artist of the species Unclassifiable.“ – The Ottawa Start
“Audiences may not readily comprehend the strange landscape of the unconscious…[but] Ms. Brassard is a captivating guide through an enchanting, if unsettling, realm…” -The New York Times
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The performance art last night was bizarrely beautiful !! I loved it !!
It was so interesting — I believe the performance to be a technical vision of Marie Brassard’s very intense dream(s), and her ideas stemming around, not only the genesis of humanity, but also the aging process and loosing oneself into incoherence and even death (life’s final moments).
I enjoyed how Marie self questioned, …If she thinks it, it exists — or even could exist.
Who is to say, that her version of creation wasn’t the true one — that’s the point that I got from her thoughts, — to question beliefs and perceptions, and to formulate your own.
I enjoyed Marie’s French accent, and when she lay on the floor, and sang in French. It was oddly intoxicating.
I appreciated the complete visual presentation.
There was a huge screen, in the background, with black and white flashing images; which served to emphasize Marie’s thoughts– wonderfully timed, I must say.
I found the best part to be how the technical people manipulated Marie’s voice — she was… small girl, to old woman, to death itself calling. It was freaky actually. The artist’s movements mirrored the age that she was depicting — I was so believable. It was appealing, and frightening, at the same time.
At one point, swirls of neon lights (on the stage floor), lit up, and changed colours, surprising the audience.
The music (both live and synthesized) was hypnotic and had a rhythm that drew you in to the moment, and into Marie’s unique choice of words, and reflections.
I think the most shocking part of the performance, was when Marie, all of a sudden, had bloody hands, and started to make handprints, here and there, on the stage floor.
This kind of childlike imprinting was somewhat perplexing and gruesome. Though, it completely made sense, given the story line, of the dream (and associated ideas), as it brought several ideas/themes full circle.
It was a highly creative, and captivating, narrative, that encompassed one person’s unique vision of life and death, and the journey along the way.
After experiencing this performance, I felt a deep sense of respect, for this artist, as she really put herself, and her imagination, on display.
~Shannon A.
The majority of the scenes could be compared to a bad LSD trip: the music, the morphed voices, the blood and the paranoia. Had I known that this is what I was going to experience I would have not gone and if I had the chance I would have definitely not paid money for it. I will agree with the reviewer (Shannon A.) in that the artist really did put herself out there and really did expose her imagination for the audience to see; although, it’s just something I would have preferred not to see.