Review: Rouge

Julie Andrée T. likes to make a mess. At this point, it’s not news; it’s more like a confirmation. I was not even planning to go see Rouge, but after seeing her previous Not Waterproof last week, she picked my curiosity and I had to see what was lying on the other side. It turns out to be a surprise. The two pieces are quite different. It is as if Julie seduces us with Not Waterproof to lure us into the more difficult Rouge.

The set is a lot more minimal this time, though that changes as the show progresses. At the beginning, there are only two large rolls of white paper hanging up at the back, unrolled almost all the way down to the audience. They are both wall and floor. Of course, this whiteness will not remain so for long. There is also a large chest.

Julie comes out with a red pepper in hand and eats all of it. Red juice drips down her white blouse, much like the red wine that she consumed at the beginning of Not Waterproof. Her mouth full, she attempts to speak to us, but she is incomprehensible. She chews, swallows a bit of her food, and tries again. Only the third time can we make out what she is saying: “What colour is this?” It’s red.

These two simple sentences are the only words spoken throughout the entire show, repeated over and over, with some minor variations. The chest is filled to the top with red objects, which she presents to us as she asks and answers the same question over and over. It’s like an educational kid’s TV show gone wrong in a monochromatic world.

As the stage gets permeated with red, the excessive use of the colour denotes an extreme desire for control in the creation of a uniform world. When Julie pulls out a string of tiny red plastic apples, she gets down on her knees and repeats her catch phrase for every single apple, as if each were an individual bead on a rosary. Rituals are obviously based on repetition, and here the obsessive nature of Julie’s performance bleeds into religiosity.

At one point, the sentences are sung over an electronic beat, being turned into a bland pop song with meaningless lyrics ready for the clubs, which Julie performs in her underwear. While there is a good dose of humour in the work, as the show goes on the spoken part of it obviously becomes more and more grating. This abrasiveness becomes its own denunciation of uniformity.

Eventually, I started getting worried that Rouge couldn’t find a satisfying ending. I don’t know why I underestimated Julie. She pulled out an ending that, while linking the work to Not Waterproof, came like a breath of fresh air by finally resisting the inclination towards uniformity. The perfect ending to an intense and captivating work.

Julie Andrée T. performs Rouge only one last time tonight, June 3, at 9pm. There will be a discussion after the show. Tickets are 28$, 21$ for students. For more information, call 514.844.3822 or visit fta.qc.ca.