DURATION 50 minutes / General audience, 16 years +
Kindred Widows paints a dreamlike portrait of a family that is both terrifying and banal. Through the story of Amanda, who was mute during the last 18 years of her life, this work examines how memory is passed along between women of different generations. Drifting between reality and imagination, the dining room table serves as a theatre where the past resurfaces. As the violin plays, fragments of life, loaded with secrets, flow into each other, and overlap with everyday gestures. An invitation to step into the elusive world of memory.
Kindred Widows is a wordless visual theatre performance for adults, about the transmission of memories among women of different generations. It explores the metaphorical possibilities of a piece of clothing, and plays with hand puppets whose lightheartedness contrasts with the strangeness of garment puppet. Live accompaniment from fiddle and foot percussion oscillates between sound effects and traditional tunes; the music is an integral part of the dramaturgy.
“The image is an object that exists in itself, that touches the inexpressible and that cannot be described without distorting it. The image is an object of thought, dream and criticism. It is a free and autonomous object. It is alive. – Patrick Bonté
Creative Team:
- Creation, design and performance: Claudine Rivest
- Stage direction: Sophie Deslauriers, Claudine Rivest
- Music: Isaac Beaudet Lefebvre
- Lighting design: Nancy Longchamp
- Collaboration on the design of animated costumes: Sylvie Baillargeon
- Collaboration on the design of the scenography: Paul Foresto
- Assistance with puppet design: Sophie Deslauriers
- Advisor on hand puppet manipulation: Noë Cropsal
- Advisor on dramaturgical movement: Olivia Faye Lathuillière
- Co-production: Les Sages Fous
- Special thanks to Les Sages Fous, Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay, La Bulle – lieu de création, Atelier Silex, Dinaïg Stall, Isabelle Payant and Nicole Mossoux.
Claudine Rivest would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec as part of the Mauricie partnership program, Les Sages Fous, Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay, La Bulle – lieu de création, Atelier Silex, Casteliers, Isabelle Payant and Dinaïg Stall.
