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Constituons !

Christian Lapointe

The intrepid Christian Lapointe mobilizes citizens, legal scholars and experts to endow Quebec with a fictitious, albeit genuine constitution. An astoundingly ambitious theatre project!

Details

Quebec didn’t sign the Canadian constitution in 1982? Desperate times call for desperate measures…Christian Lapointe hijacks reality! For over a year, the intrepid artist mobilized citizens, legal scholars and experts far and wide so that Quebec would have a fictitious, albeit genuine, constitution. An astoundingly ambitious project that restores to theatre its function as a communal agora.

With the new, freshly drafted constitution in hand, Christian Lapointe takes us behind the scenes of an unprecedented democratic exercise, a troubled zone where reality and simulation merge and hybridize. As in ancient Greece 42 citizens, representative of our society, were selected in random fashion. With unshakeable good faith, they plunged into extensive questioning, engaged in lively discussion, were both annoyed and enthusiastic as they worked to present to hundreds of other Quebecers a proposal they could all then debate and discuss, a vision of an ideal Quebec. Art can indeed create grand moments.

Credits

Produced by Carte Blanche + Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui
Directed and performed by Christian Lapointe
Avec la participation spéciale de Alexandre Bacon
Direction Assistant and Stage Manager Emmanuelle Kirouac-Sanche
Set Design Anick La Bissonnière
Set Design Assistant Catherine Le Gall-Marchand
Original Score Martien Bélanger
Light Design Martin Sirois
Documentary videos Alexis Chartrand (LZR Films)
Video Lionel Arnould
Dramaturgy Marie-Claude Verdier
Realization of the Citizen Constituent Assembly Institut du Nouveau Monde
Set Design Assistant Catherine Le Gall-Marchand
Doublure repétition Sylvio Arriola
Production Manager Catherine Desjardins-Jolin
Technical Director Mickaël Tétrault-Ménard
Project Manager and Logistic Esther Charron
Communications Isabelle Mandalian
Administrative Coordinator Isabelle Tougne

Realization of the Citizen Constituent Assembly Institut du Nouveau Monde

Coproduction Festival TransAmériques

Co-producers on the Québec territory Espace K Théâtre (Baie-Comeau) + Théâtre À tour de rôle (Carleton-sur-Mer) + Théâtre de la Rubrique (Jonquière) + Théâtre les gens d’en bas (Le Bic) + Théâtre Périscope (Québec) + Théâtre du Tandem (Rouyn-Noranda) + Théâtre du Double Signe (Sherbrooke) + Théâtre Parminou (Victoriaville) + STO Union (Wakefield)

Special holding of a citizen forum Théâtre de la Ville de Longueuil

Constituent Assembly Co-Chairs Daniel Turp + Mme la bâtonnière Claudia P. Prémont Constituents Serge Alfaro + Gabrielle Arguin + Michel Ayotte + Judith Boucher + Mélanie Camirand + Pascal Chrétien + Trevor Cook + Guillaume Corriveau + Lise Couture + Jean-Philippe De Choinière + Julien Desormeaux + Ahmed El Berrak + Martine Garceau-Lebel + Andréa Genois + Louis Gingras + Suzanne Lacoursière + Josette Grimard + Michel Héraud + René Herrera + Geneviève Lafrance + Ysabelle Lafontaine + Gabrielle Landry + Tomy Léné-Bradet + Ronald Lenoir + Renée Lajoie + Jacques Lepage + Soledad Lubin + Denise Marquis + Marie Soeurette Mathieu + Bernard McNicoll + Diane Morency + Patrice Ruest + Cezar Serbanescu + Brian Taillefer + Judy Tetreault + Ghada Touir + Derek Trudel + Daphnée Turenne + Robert Valentine + Jean De Dieu Wandeu + Jean-Sébastien Reardon

With the support of Université du Québec à Montréal dans le cadre des 50 ans de l’UQAM + École supérieure de théâtre + Fonds de développement académique du réseau de l’Université du Québec + Partenariat des Fonds de recherche du Québec + Syndicat des professeurs et professeures de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, de l’Université du Québec à Chicoutimi et de l’Université du Québec à Rimouski + Fédération québécoise des professeures professeurs d’université + Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux + Fédération des professionnèles + Fédération nationale des enseignants et enseignantes du Québec + TÉLUQ + Fonds François-Gagnon pour le théâtre de création + Fondation Chopin-Péladeau + Théâtre Il va sans dire

Creative Residency Théâtre du Bic / Théâtre les gens d’en bas

Presented in association with Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui

Written by Paul Lefebvre
Translated by Neil Kroetsch

Premiered at Festival TransAmériques, Montreal, on June 1, 2019