Top Ten Shows of 2009

Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen, Alexander Devriendt
A dozen teenagers left patronizing narratives behind and instead communicated their experience through a series of impressionistic tableaux. Using almost exclusively physical theatre, they were able to offer a refreshingly amoral take on adolescence that was bursting with energy. In the midst of chaos, they found beauty.

Singular Sensation, Yasmine Godder
Though he claimed to have been left indifferent by Singular Sensation, Dfdanse’s François Dufort wrote an entire paragraph of his original review of the show in bold. If someone is going to get so upset over a work of art, you know there’s got to be something there. Indeed, there is something unsettling and even threatening about Godder’s display of freedom. When I first saw it, I claimed that I was almost ready to call it a masterpiece. I’m ready now: it’s a masterpiece.

Grand singe, Nicolas Cantin
Cantin’s duo for a man and woman is probably the show that managed to pack the most punch using the most minimal means this year. Though Grand singe had misogynist undertones – the woman freaks out while the man remains perfectly calm – it only ended up fueling our already intense emotional reaction to the work.

Matter, Julie Nioche
While her show was an imposing production, Nioche offered one of the most minimalist works of the year: four women slowly moving in white paper dresses as water fell from above and filled the stage, making their dresses come undone. A great sense of spirituality and peace emanated from Matter as the women retained control of the core of their being as everything around them seemed to fall apart.

The Most Together We’ve Ever Been, Matija Ferlin & Ame Henderson
Every time I make this list, I question what it means; why these shows and not countless others? This year, what strikes me about these artists is that they are deeply committed to their creative pursuits, even at the risk of turning audiences against them. Maybe nowhere was this commitment more apparent than with Ferlin and Henderson, who created an entire show around beginnings as they constantly walked in and out of the room. It was witty, funny, and even touching. But, more importantly, it demanded something more of the audience than to just sit there and be entertained.

La Chambre Blanche, Ginette Laurin
Seventeen years after the first performance of La Chambre Blanche, Laurin recreated this seminal work of hers to great success. One of the most unusual features for such a large group work is that the choreographer managed to create a distinct way of moving for each of her nine dancers. It’s one of the most polished shows of the year, with every section building on one another and up to a powerful ending.

Meanwhile Everywhere, The Cody Rivers Show
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what was going on most of the time in Meanwhile Everywhere. What I do know is that it was hilarious and brilliant. Rarely do I feel the urge to combine the words “comic” and “genius” but, in the case of The Cody Rivers Show, it’s most definitely warranted.

Not Waterproof/L’érosion d’un corps erroné & Rouge, Julie Andrée T.
Performance art is not the hottest commodity in Montreal, but if Julie Andrée T.’s is anything to go by, there needs to be a lot more. While presenting herself in a trashy manner, chain-smoking and drinking an entire bottle of wine within the first few minutes of Not Waterproof/L’érosion d’un corps erroné, she then goes on to create visual poetry with paint, water, her body, cigarettes, and anything else that is put at her disposal. She reveals the pleasing aesthetics of messiness and, as can most visibly be seen in Rouge, makes art a truly political venture.

Uncalled For’s Drunken St. Paddy’s Day Improv Show
It wasn’t the first time I attended Uncalled For’s annual St. Patrick’s Day show. However, this year, for better or for worse, they went further than ever before. Somewhere along the way, it stopped being improv comedy and became performance art, hundreds of eyes watching three men get drunk out of their minds onstage. It was like witnessing a car crash where the collision seemed like it would never end. Our hands over our eyes, we were begging for it to stop while secretly wishing it would go on just to see how much more fucking ridiculous it could get.