The war at home

>> Wajdi Mouawad's thought-provoking Six personnages brings bloodshed to the Plateau

by AMY BARRATT

The day after the bombs began falling on Afghanistan, they began falling on Théâtre de Quat'sous, and have continued to do so for the past month, every night at 8.

Quat'sous is both the site and the setting of Wajdi Mouawad's adaptation of Pirandello's Six personnages en quête d'auteur (Six Characters in Search of an Author). Mouawad sets the play in the little black and red playhouse on Avenue des Pins in the fall of 2005. As director, actors and technicians work on a production of À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou, a civil war is being waged on the streets of the Plateau.

Who exactly is fighting whom is never made clear in this adaptation of the text. As an anglo, you automatically imagine Quebec's perennial language "wars" (doesn't that seem like a misuse of the W-word now?) have erupted into actual violence. The name of the faction that is said to be holed up inside the McGill Arena, Ghostdance, sounds like a biker gang. There's also a hint that this conflict could have begun with a native uprising. But Mouawad gives no more than hints and at the end of the play we're still left guessing. This civil war scenario is offered up merely as a frame to Pirandello's text, and as such it's almost too interesting. You almost wish Mouawad, also a playwright, had simply written that story.

In Pirandello's text, six people interrupt the rehearsal claiming to be characters abandoned by an unnamed playwright and seeking an author to allow them to live their story. The tragedy of the six characters is gripping in its own way. By combining the two scenarios, Mouawad is creating a very large, somewhat messy canvas. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. Just as it did 80 years ago, Pirandello's play still explores the role of theatre and of art in general in the modern world. In raising issues of what is authentic and which stories get told by whom, it is very relevant in our CNN universe.

In light of current world events, it becomes more evident than usual that all theatre fits into one of two categories: the kind that lets you escape your worries for a time, and the kind that picks up the argument going on in your head and ideally, helps you clarify your thoughts. Mouawad's work, though it can be very entertaining, always tries to fall into the second category. This director doesn't want you to forget your troubles; he wants to trouble you.

In the weeks since September 11, the Quat'sous has become something of a touchstone for Montrealers, particularly artists, who want to explore alternatives to military action in the current conflict. Actor Jean-François Casabonne, who has frequently trod the boards there, was instrumental in organizing a peace march from the Quat'sous a few weeks ago, and installing a colourfully painted box outside the theatre to collect Montrealers' messages of peace. The letters were subsequently posted on a "MurMur de la Paix" in front of the monastery facing Mont-Royal metro.

War and displacement have always been prominent themes for Mouawad, who grew up in Lebanon in the '70s. With this production he wants to give Montrealers a taste of what is, even since September 11, still inconceivable to us: a war in our own backyard. His Six personnages is a brilliant experiment that asks more questions than it answers. :

Six personnages en quête d'auteur to Nov. 17 at Théâtre de Quat'sous, $18-25, 845-7277