Pay-what-you-want at Le NoShow — but let your conscience be your guide
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:00:08 +0000
Le NoShow Vancouver
When: Feb. 26 to March 1 (note: all performances have surtitles)
Where: Performance Works
Tickets: from $0 at seizieme.ca
Le NoShow, a theatrical experience originally from Quebec City, is free. Or is it?
Early on, audience members are asked how much they are willing to pay for the show. As much as the price of a movie and popcorn? A Canucks game? The Rolling Stones at B.C. Place? Or nothing at all?
More than a look at the value of theatre to an audience, though, Le NoShow is an exploration of what it means to be an actor today.
To that end, director Hubert Lemire recruited seven locals.
“We needed people with a bit of experience, who are not too established but not too green,” Lemire said.
“They are just experienced enough to be living with a kind of disillusion. A young actor when they’re just out of school is enthusiastic and excited, but after five, six, seven years, they might find themselves still working nine-to-five jobs. We wanted actors who could be young enough to change career.”
Besides directing the Vancouver production, Lemire developed the show, along with François Bernier (Montreal’s Théâtre du Bunker), from an idea and direction by Alexandre Fecteau (Quebec’s Collectif Nous Sommes Ici). Lemire has also starred in every production of Le NoShow from its 2013 inception until this one, including runs in Quebec, Switzerland, France and most recently Mexico. In each city, the award-winning show populates the stage with a local cast.
For the Vancouver production, Théâtre la Seizième’s Esther Duquette supplied Lemire with the CVs of likely candidates.
“Then we asked them questions about their lives,” he said. “We wanted seven different situations that show the different paths that an actor can take.”
Once chosen, actors worked with Lemire to fit their reality into the structure of the script, and vice versa. Though each night is different, says Lemire, it’s not improv.
The Théâtre la Seizième presentation, in association with Théâtre du Bunker and Collectif Nous Sommes Ici, features Chris Francisque, Siona Gareau-Brennan, Cory Haas, Emilie Leclerc, Nathan Metral, Frédérique Roussel, and Anaïs West.
“It reveals the reality of being a jobbing actor,” said Haas. “A lot of people just see what ends up on the screen. In theatre there’s so much that goes into it. This reveals what goes into making a show, and the kind of vulnerability that goes with it.”
Throughout the performance, Le NoShow asks the audience to make decisions that determine the course of the action. But it’s not invasively interactive.
“Many of the audience members will spend most of the shows sitting in their chairs in peace,” Lemire said. “Some others are less lucky, and the spotlight is on them. But it’s fun. It’s dramaturgy based on the audience-member experience.”
The actors, of course, are not so lucky — they are thoroughly invaded.
“I’ve been in it more than 100 times, and I never felt comfortable,” Lemire said. Now, acting in “a classic show,” i.e. one where the actors know all their lines and what happens next, is a breeze.
“It asks for an incredible amount of vulnerability of everyone onstage,” Haas said of LeNoShow. “But that just makes human beings stronger, to face their weaknesses and struggles and come out on the other side. We’ve learned so much. We all have different backgrounds, and the struggles are different for each of us. And that’s been really eye-opening for us.”
Le NoShow Vancouver will also be eye-opening for the audience. “We depict our reality with a lot of humour and a lot of fun stuff,” Lemire said. “Back in the day, we would see young actors who came back with their parents so they could see what their child would go through. So it’s educational but in a funny way.”