Circus troupe on stage
TRAPEZE ARTIST returns to theatre with a hybrid show
If a certain San Francisco journalist hadn’t taken an interest in the circus back in the early 1980s, his daughter, Shana Carroll, probably would not be living in a former convent in St-Henri now, along with her husband, their 4-yearold daughter, and fellow cofounders of Les 7 Doigts de la main circus troupe.
While writing a piece about acrobats and injuries, Jon Carroll, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, met the Pickle Family Circus. “Then they approached him about writing their 10th anniversary book,” his daughter explained during a recent interview at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, where she is co-directing Le Murmure du coquelicot. “So he followed the troupe around, did all these interviews and just kind of got swept up in the Pickle Family Circus.”
Carroll often insisted that his daughter come along for the ride. She was smitten with “serious theatre” at the time and couldn’t understand her father’s infatuation with something as “silly” as the circus. By the time she was 18, however, she was working as an apprentice for the Pickle Family Circus. “I did group sales, house management. I had to take the cash and bring it to the box office,” she recalled.
Trouble was, most of the other young people, like Gypsy Snider who had grown up in the circus, were doing f un things — like swinging on trapezes. “I fell in love with the trapeze,” she said. She began practising on her own, whenever she got the chance.
Eventually Carroll’s obsession brought her to the École nationale de cirque in Montreal where she hoped to train with André Simard, “the best trapeze coach in the world.” She bluffed her way into the school. Later, she did another year’s training in France. Finally, in 1994, she joined Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco. It was here that Carroll, Sébastien Soldevila (now her husband), Snider, Isabelle Chassé, Patrick Léonard, Faon Shane and Samuel Tétreault founded Les 7 Doigts de la main in 2002. In contrast to the Cirque du Soleil, they were anti-glamour, performed in their underwear and juggled kitchen utensils. They were soon touring the world.
Now, Carroll, co-founder and co-artistic director of Les 7 Doigts, has returned to the theatre with Le Murmure du coquelicot, a hybrid show, written by Soldevila and co-directed by Carroll and Soldevila.
TNM gave the circus troupe “great trust and support and this wonderful venue,” Carroll said. “But this is a 7 Doigts production in collaboration with TNM. It’s really been 100 per cent our creation at every level.”
The play revolves around a second-rate actor, who is “sort of at the end of his career,” played by Rémy Girard. He goes to an audition held by a woman director (Pascale Montpetit) and the real world dissolves into fantasy.
The six circus performers in the show are “sort of like a Greek chorus in some ways,” Carroll said. “And they also play different characters from his past. They are very malleable. They often transform throughout the show.”
Is it a circus or a play? “It’s mostly theatre,” she replied. “I think it’s going to be surprising and exciting but also image-rich, in a surreal way. I think if you go expecting a musical or a circus you’ll be surprised how much it is a play.”
Carroll and Soldevila aren’t the only 7 Doigts founders going theatrical thesedays. Snider created the circus acts for the Broadway revival of Pippin, directed by Diana Paulus, which won four Tony Awards last spring. Carroll last worked with the Cirque du Soleil as the acrobatic performance designer for the ill-fated Iris, which was launched in Los Angeles in the fall of 2011 but closed Jan. 19, 2013. As one of the few Americans working on the show, Carroll was not surprised when the Los Angeles market did not respond as hoped. It was a long shot.
But risk and instability go with the lifestyle. That’s why Carroll loves her home in the ex-convent in St-Henri where all the 7 Doigts founders live (except Tétreault) and where Carroll’s daughter and Snider’s children can play safely. “We have our individual buildings but we share a courtyard (with Jacuzzi) and we have all these communicating doors so our children play together all the time. She has the fun of siblings without having to share her parents,” Carroll said.
Le Murmure du coquelicot
previews Wednesday, opens Thursday at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, 84 SteCatherine W. Ends Oct. 12. Call 514-866-8668 or visit tnm.qc.ca.