A wry and bitter look at the cult of celebrity
Bliss
★★★ (out of 4) By Olivier Choinière. Translated by Caryl Churchill. Directed by Steven Mccarthy. Until April 8 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander St. 416-975-8555
There are times when the cult of celebrity seems to have taken over this insane world of ours. How else to explain the obsession with notalents such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian?
Our own Céline Dion — far from talentless, of course — has her fair share of avid worshippers. And this is the point of departure for Olivier Choinière’s Bliss, now at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Agroup of Walmart employees are breathlessly dissecting the minutiae of Dion’s farewell concert of 1999 when she bowed out to try to have a family. Guided by an oracle — one of the employees, who, armed with a microphone, corrects every detail — the employees take us through every gesture, every utterance.
But in this extraordinarily imaginative and challenging little play, the plot slowly morphs into some- thing very different. We are suddenly in the bedroom of Dion fan Isabelle Côté, who was held captive and constantly abused by her father and her brothers over 17 years. It’s a true story that was given great prominence in Quebec papers. But that’s not all; there’s a further spiral down into nightmare as Choinière spins a tale of a woman who literally turns herself inside out, before deftly drawing the various threads of his story together. This is a playwright of rare talent, one who has something to say and an original way of saying it. The stories are told by the four actors in the style of a Greek tragedy; nothing horrific is seen onstage yet the chorus creates an atmosphere of terror that is overwhelming. The play, presented by Candles Are for Burning in association with Buddies, has a rags-to-riches type of history. First staged by Steven McCarthy at Montreal’s National Theatre School, it was a hit at Summer-Works in 2010 and translated by illustrious playwright Caryl Churchill for a production in London.
Nevertheless, it still feels a little raw; there are moments that feel somewhat like a theatre exercise. And the four actors — Delphine Bienvenu, Jean-robert Bourdage, Trent Pardy and France Roland — are far from smooth and consistent in their technique (although in a way this adds to the charm of this particular production).
But Mccarthy manages to move them relatively adroitly around the set: a raised, white-tiled dais, with a battered iron bed in the middle.
Wry, bitter and chilly, Bliss is a remarkable calling card from a playwright who seems destined to be a major force in the years ahead.