Martin Crimp unveils his new creation at the Carrefour international de théâtre

Presented as a world premiere in Quebec, on the occasion of the Carrefour international de théâtre, Not one of these people, by British playwright Martin Crimp, is a special experience totally in tune with the times.

Martin Crimp unveils his new creation at the Carrefour international de théâtre

Presented as a world premiere in Quebec, on the occasion of the Carrefour international de théâtre, Not one of these people, by British playwright Martin Crimp, is a special experience totally in tune with the times. A work that casts a wide net at a time when technology and social networks are omnipresent.

On Wednesday, the English playwright offered the original version of his new creation, entitled Not One of Those People at La Bordée. Yesterday and tonight, it is Christian Lapointe, who signed the staging, the design and the translation, who will deliver the French version.

This theatrical object features 299 characters who offer 299 replicas imagined by Martin Crimp.

Characters who do not exist and who are created by a process of hyperfaking. They appear on a screen and it looks like real people. Babies, teenagers, young adults and older people who express themselves on a multitude of subjects.

They make statements, recount lived experiences, react, talk about racism, injustices, immigration, frustration, trivial things, violence against women and make confessions. With a few words or a few sentences.

It goes from a character who had several reasons to kill someone with a hammer, from a person who does not understand the "mumbles" of a majority of people who do not articulate, from the vegetarian who cannot more than being offered meat by his friends to someone who doesn't like lemon. Not One of Those People is a large public square similar to what we find on social networks.

It's scathing, funny and sometimes awkward. Some segments, with children, are particularly creepy and offbeat.

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Initially, with a succession of faces scrolling across a screen and the sound of a voice bringing them to life, it feels like the experience will quickly reach its limits.

And suddenly, Martin Crimp appears on the boards. We see him lend his voice to the characters. The eyes of the faces on the screen come alive. Lips and faces begin to move and ambient sound is present to accompany the images. It is skilfully conducted and constructed. The more the show progresses, the more it feels like these characters exist and express themselves for real.

And that's the strength of Not One of Those People/Pas une de ces personnes. Martin Crimp and Christian Lapointe skilfully create true fiction.

With this show. Martin Crimp raises, between the lines, the question of who can make whom speak in the theatre?, who can play whom? and where artistic freedom ends. We also realize that Crimp can make the 299 faces say anything and that everything seems to be real. Which brings us back to everything that can be found on social networks and on “the” internets. And suddenly, what seemed perhaps a bit banal at first takes on its full meaning as we reflect and invades us.

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