B-movie buzz

>> Tsé-tsé places The Fly in Duplessis-era Quebec

by AMY BARRATT

It's a fabulous story.

In the 1950s, a Quebec woman, Léone Rivière-Coche, leaves her husband and child and runs off to California with her lover, George L. She discovers writing, penning among other things, a play called Tsé-tsé. George not only abandons her but sells her idea to a movie studio which makes it into a B-movie, The Fly (1958). Soon after, Rivière-Coche dies of food poisoning. Her original manuscript returns with her body to Quebec where it is eventually sold by her surviving relatives at auction for the meagre sum of $10. Years later a young Quebec dramaturge rediscovers the play and stages a production.

A great story, and completely untrue. Although director Olivier Choinière is currently presenting a play called Tsé-tsé on a rooftop terrasse at Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui, any resemblance to the above melodrama ends there. Oh, except for one other thing: the screenplay for The Fly was based on a story by a certain George Langelaan, about whom virtually nothing is known.

It is apparently from this detail, and the fact that the characters in the film have French-sounding names, that Choinière has invented the tall tale being spun in the publicity material for his production. He's an imaginative guy, and the fact that the name Léone Rivière-Coche is almost an anagram for Olivier Choinière, provides a big hint as to who actually wrote Tsé-tsé. A good deal of it is lifted directly from the original screenplay--penned, incidentally, by James Clavell of Shogun fame--and translated into French. The action has been transposed to Quebec in the waning years of the Duplessis reign.

A scientist, Dr. André Delorme (Marc Beaupré), has invented, in secret, a teleportation machine which he says will revolutionize travel. As the first human guinea pig to make the trip from one end of his laboratory to the other, he chooses, naturally, himself. Unfortunately, a housefly enters the "portal" with him and well, the two of them essentially switch heads. This causes some consternation within Dr. Delorme's family.

However, this being the '50s, his Donna Reed-like wife, Hélène (Simone Chevalot), is determined to go on as if nothing is out of the ordinary. This is where Choinière's creative license really gets going, but I wouldn't want to give too much away.

The cast, rounded out by Michel Lavoie as the couple's son, Philippe, is having a great deal of fun. Chevalot, with her clipped gestures and perpetually taut, surprised expression, reminded me of scream queen Janet Leigh. Visual gags abound in the casting with Hélène towering over her diminutive husband and Philippe, a young boy played by a grown man, by far the largest person on the stage. The whole thing is played very seriously by the actors, which is, of course, what makes it so funny. Then the piece goes slack in the last 10 minutes, as if Choinière didn't know how to end it.

The outdoor setting is a risk considering the weather we've had this summer, but the night I went was perfectly clear and the moon and stars as backdrop gave an appropriate sci-fi feel. There's also a cash bar provided by the folks at Bily Kun on Mont-Royal.

Tsé-tsé continues Wednesday-Friday, 9:30pm, until Aug. 25, $10. Reservations 527-2215