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Down and dirtyTableau D’Hôte’s Mathieu Perron
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By NEIL BOYCE Mike Payette and his friend Mathieu Perron—the 20-something actor-director-founders of Tableau d’Hôte theatre—are deep into the biggest production of their lives. Their staging of Montreal-born Judith Thompson’s 1990 play Lion in the Streets is a 19-actor extravaganza that rolls and wallows over a dirt-filled stage. It’s a graphic, unsettling, uneasy mix that crosses murder, rape and sexual degradation with innocence and grace—a challenging, intelligent ghost story set for the Halloween season at MainLine Theatre. They’ve been through long hours and fussed over endless details. They both look like shit. Payette takes a break after directing a scene with Perron as actor. “For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been ending rehearsals with massive migraines,” he says. “But, you know, they’re like battle scars. The brain hurts, the body is tired... but I’m satisfied.” Main character Isobel, a nine-year-old girl, has been murdered 17 years before the play begins. She appears to us not knowing where she is, in search of her home and her killer. Along this dark journey, she encounters a series of characters—all bound up in their own private hells—who give her clues in bits and pieces about who and where she is. “I like to call it an Alice in Wonderland nightmare,” says Payette. “Isobel’s the girl you would see on those milk cartons and wonder, ‘Where is she?’” 
“SALT AND PEPPER”: Payette and Perron RISKY MOVESEarlier, as we sat down at a noisy café, Perron and Payette seemed like an old married couple—finishing each other’s sentences, contradicting each other, arguing over the date of some past event. Payette is easy-going, relaxed and measured as he answers, while Perron’s all nervous and fidgety energy, reserved, but ready with a quick interjection. “It’s really funny you say that,” says Payette, “because I get a lot of questions like, ‘You and Mat: how can this possibly work?’ I say it’s because we are like yin and yang, uh...” As words fail him, Perron cuts in, “You mean, how can we stand each other?” Payette adds, to general laughter, “Well, I tell them I know Mat has no tact...” “In each production,” Payette continues, “we ask ourselves: what’s the risk? If there’s no risk, it’s not worth it. In Lion in the Streets, it’s important we bring a light to the dark—not to dismiss the rawness of the themes, but to embrace them. The piece reminds us all that we have to take back our lives.” The most remarkable and controversial part of the large cast and crew—where seasoned talents like Tamara Brown and Joel Fishbane rub elbows with newer actors—is the central character. Tableau d’Hôte’s production is the first to feature an actual child in the main role, with 10-year-old Charley Hausknost, the theatre-in-the-blood progeny of Mat and Mike’s former teachers, Liz Valdez and Eric Hausknost, playing the lost Isobel. A risky move, as this is far from a kids’ fairy tale. But as he concentrated on the voice of the story, Payette was convinced he had to cast a child in the role. Conjuring the notion of a child’s understanding, Perron adds, “Remember when you didn’t know? I thought it was a brilliant idea that would get people talking.” Looking at the two, another comparison comes to mind: a Coen Brothers kind of symbiosis rules their collaboration beyond them both talking at once. In a given production, one or other might act, direct, write, or propose a possible script—whatever the project dictates. It all started when Perron and Payette were in an ensemble at Actor’s Studio Montreal Performing Arts. “ASM introduced me to Canadian theatre,” says Perron. “Before that, I had never realized there were Canadian playwrights and that our stories were being written. It gave me the idea, ‘Why aren’t more of these plays produced in town?’” Teenagers then, Perron and Payette would produce shows on their own, directing and writing, one often appearing in the other’s work. They credit teacher Valdez as vital in getting them moving. “It’s really through her influence and the school that we had the gumption to say, ‘We should stop doing this haphazardly and actually come up with a mandate, a vision’,” says Payette. “So it’s not Mike on his own, Mat on his own, but pushing forward together.” On through the Concordia theatre program, then 10 shows and four seasons later, their mandate still focuses on staging new works from emerging artists and acclaimed writers. But Tableau d’Hôte only do Canadian plays, whether published or non-published, emphasizing diverse ethnicities and approaches to the stage as they develop their corner of English theatre in Quebec. ROUGH AND READYActors drift in and out of a rehearsal space on Jeanne-Mance, flopping in a break area near the windows. Conversations with the cast are interrupted by yelling, the occasional scream, and the sight of one actor flung to the ground and throttled by another. Then, with a quiet “okay” from Payette, the action stops, people resume their places, and it starts all over again. Sterling Mawhinney, playing a faithless husband with a phone sex addiction, sits down after a scene, hanging his head. I ask him how it is at the end of a day. “You’re done,” he says. “You’re pretty much done. It’s physically demanding and the subject matter is intense... the run’s gonna be hard, but it’s a great show.” “I like the company—what they believe in, what they’re trying to do,” says actor Stefanie Buxton, fresh from getting beaten up on stage. “They support emerging artists, they do Canadian work and hire locally. Very important things—especially for a little English company in Montreal.” Perron and Payette read the script three years ago, but opted to do an earlier Thompson play. But after staging Morris Panych’s 7 Stories in early 2008—a large ensemble and massive set squeezed into Théâtre Ste-Catherine that worked like a charm—they felt ready to tackle it again. Of the dirt set, Perron says, “It’s just the kind of thing we try to go for—same thing with 7 Stories. We wanted to transform that space so that while you were there, you forgot you were at TSC. You’ve got to take people out of small spaces with your design.” About the group’s unusual name: “Oh, God, that’s a horrible story,” says Perron. “We were at a pizzeria in NDG and were trying to come up with a name. One was Salt and Pepper.” “’Cause I’m black and he’s white!” Payette says gleefully. “Thank God we didn’t go with that.” Or, from both their initials, “MP Squared” and others equally crappy. Looking at a menu, they saw “table d’hôte,” gave it a tweak, and that was that. The ideas of a communal table for all guests, and a small company that can still offer audiences a “full course meal,” seemed to merge nicely. Back at the rehearsal space, Payette waits for the next group of actors to arrive. “We’re at a point where we can completely disregard the earlier stages and now just have fun within this world. Judith Thompson writes very stream-of-consciousness. It’s how we would normally speak, but she heightens it. For me, the idea that all this dark subject matter comes to us from the eyes of a child... it’s haunting. We as human beings have a fascination with the dark, but we don’t embrace it. This play does.” Echoing Perron’s earlier comment, Payette manages a weary smile. “People are going to hate it or love it, they’re not going to be indifferent. And that’s okay with me.” LION IN THE STREETS RUNS OCT. |
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