FRINGE 2015: Doggy Dans Gravel

June 12th. Friday night. Still soaking wet from the pouring rain outside. I speed through the streets to arrive at the doors of La Chapelle in sight.

7:37. Great. I’m already late for the premiere performance of Doggy dans gravel (aka Doggy). I try to mumble some sort of excuse to the lady at the door. She signals me to stop making a scene and just enter the room.

I hurry. I sit on the stairs right next to the theatre benches as quietly as I can be...

And guess what? Doggy definitely grew to became one of the best shows I have seen this year overall. Let me explain why.

Produced by Théâtre Kata, this play is helmed by Olivier Arteau-Gauthier, a young twenty-something man who is both credited as playwright and director.

The play is unbearably loud, provocatively unsubtle, over the top vulgar, a rigmarole of carefully thought out sceneries, choreographies, vibrant images, gorgeous colours, opera singing. The list goes on.

Actually, the list never seems to stop. Olivier’s artistic background is quite impressive – ranging from dancing to Belarus theatre studies – and he puts them all into good use.

But this isn’t Théâtre Kata and Olivier’s first collaborative project together as a Troupe. Their last production was in 2014, called Le Monstre. That play earned them a pair of awards from the Centre des Auteurs Dramatiques (CEAD), a local francophone drama and performing arts school, for Most Promising Author and Best Francophone Play, including a couple of Frankie awards from the 2014 Montreal Fringe Festival.

And if you’re into Montreal’s local performing arts scene, Olivier Arteau-Gauthier is who you should keep an eye out for.

In Doggy, his work and text are supported by a team of dedicated actors, who bring energy, vitality and strength to a text already pulsating with all those things. Without forgetting the team of Théâtre Kata and Vincent Roy on the eclectic soundtrack.

And the show ends. Just like that. The actors invite the audience for a two-for-one special at the bar Le Jockey on St-Zotique.

After the show, Olivier had his broom in hand as we helped the actors and production crew clean up the room. I felt terrible asking Olivier for a few minutes on the side to speak to me. Here's what we talked about, as always, translated into English from the original French-language interview.

...

Frantz: Why is everything so over the top in your show? The dance movements are heavy. The images are in your face. The text is so crude.

Olivier: I like to see my theater as kinetic. I’m all about movement and physically. Those are the things I take from my training.

Frantz: From the way you describe your text in your promotional tracks to your interviews, you give the impression that it’s all quite obscure and inaccessible, when you’re play (and even yourself) are quite the opposite. Why is that?

Olivier: That’s simply to give seriousness (sérieux) and gravitas to what I do. I don’t want people coming in discrediting all the hardwork that is put into this play, or any of my plays from the get go. I want them to give it a fair and honest intellectual appreciation despite its integration of “pop” and “pop” aspects.

...

Doggy dans gravel is a French-language play happening at La Chapelle Theatre, located 3700 Saint Dominique, until June 21th.

Learn more on this play by visiting their Fringe Festival Page here. Also, don’t miss the other Théâtre Kata’s other production, Le Monstre, happening at ZOOFEST.

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Frantz-Patrice Séïde Cameau is part of CJLO’s Official Fringe Team covering the sights and sounds from the 2015 St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival.

You can contact Frantz by via email: lobster.mtl@gmail.com

Photo credit: Pierre Castera