The Fury of My Thoughts

Infrarouge

31/5, 1/6
Friday, Saturday
20:00
Grand Auditorium, Macao Cultural Centre

Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, without interval
Performed in French, with surtitles in Chinese and English
Restricted to audiences aged 16 or above (contains adult content)

Please switch off all sound and light-emitting devices. Unauthorised photography or recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Thank you for cooperating.

Artistic Team

Text: Nelly Arcan (collage)
Adaptation and Direction: Marie Brassard
Original Idea and Development: Sophie Cadieux
Dramaturge and Assistant Adaption: Daniel Canty
Cast: Christine Beaulieu, Sophie Cadieux, Laurence Dauphinais, Johanne Haberlin, Marie-Laurence Moreau, Ève Pressault and Anne Thériault
Set and Properties Design: Antonin Sorel
Music: Alexander MacSween
Lights: Mikko Hynninen
Sound Design: Frédéric Auger
Assistant Properties: Alex Hercule Desjardins
Costumes: Catherine Chagnon
Costume Assistant: Éric Poirier
Make-up: Jacques-Lee Pelletier
Hair: Patrick G. Nadeau
Production and Tour Director: Anne McDougall
Technical Director: Romane Bocquet
Assistant Technical Director: Catherine Fasquelle
Head Sound: David Blouin
Properties/Wardrobe: Julie Mealin
Technician: Alexandra Lebeau
English Translation: Oana Avasilichioaei
Production: Infrarouge / Espace GO (Montreal)
Co-production: Théâtre français du CNA (Ottawa), Festival TransAmériques (Montreal) and PARCO (Tokyo)
International Agent: Menno Plukker Theatre Agent, Inc. (Menno Plukker and Magdalena Marszalek)
Agent in France and Europe: Quaternaire (Sarah Ford)

The Fury of My Thoughts is a collage of texts taken from Putain (2001) and Folle (2004) by Nelly Arcan, published by Editions du Seuil, as well as L’enfant dans le miroir, published by Marchand de Feuille, later included in Burqua de chair (2011), published by Editions du Seuil.

About Nelly Arcan

Nelly Arcan was born on 5 March 1973 in Quebec, Canada. In 2001, she published her first book, Putain (Whore), based on her own experience working as an escort sex worker. The novel was nominated for two of France’s most prestigious literary awards, the Prix Médicis and the Prix Fémina. Putain was followed by three more novels that transformed this young and alluring Québécoise author into a darling of the French literary world and the Canadian culture scene. The vigorous and supremely honest style that characterised her writing made her stand out. Arcan also wrote numerous short stories, opinion pieces and columns for various Quebec newspapers and literary magazines. In 2009, upon completion of her fourth novel Paradis clef en main (Exit), she took her own life at the age of 36.

Programme Notes

The Fury of My Thoughts is based on a collage of texts from different books written by Nelly Arcan. It has been inspired by some of the recurrent themes, or obsessions, the writer often addressed in her novels. On stage, nine windows give on to nine rooms. The private lives of women unfold behind six of these glass walls. Each of the six rooms corresponds to a song, expressing an obsession, anxiety or hope, all themes in Arcan’s books. The seventh tune, The Lost Song, is the song of the chorus, directed by the spectre that, at times, pervades and haunts women’s intimate lives.

Song of Illusions – Concerning illusions, mirrors and body image
Song of the Ether – Concerning the cosmos, the stars and nature
The Blood Song – Concerning the ties of blood and lineage
The Song of the Occult – Concerning destiny and the confusion of gender
Song of the Shadow – Concerning the compelling power of death
Song of the Serpents – Concerning faith and madness
The Lost Song – Concerning wandering, solitude and suffering

Director’s Notes

There is so much darkness in Nelly Arcan’s writing that you must often take your eyes off the book for a moment. And you think: oh god, so much suffering, so brazenly expressed. And what intransigence, what harshness, what clarity they have, these beautiful eyes that pierce the soul mercilessly like sharp daggers. Paradoxically, you feel affection for her, this author who writes without pity or compassion. The impulse of her fury, gushing forth from her hard and vivid prose, cannot conceal the terror which this brilliant woman, imprisoned in an uninterrupted state of distress, felt in the face of injustices and the frailty of the human condition, the status of women and the states of love. This writing that flows like a river, exposes at every moment the intensity of this pain she felt to be herself and the amplitude of her mal de vivre.

This creation is a chant: a chorus of six actresses and a dancer, all remarkable artists who bring Arcan’s writing to life. In the end, a drunken young woman with her shoes in her hands wanders away into the night. This delicate spectre, I imagine her going home. She sleeps a while. Then, she gets up with the day, with a new perspective and perhaps even some hope...

Nelly Arcan was a generous woman. Through her writings, she exposed her private life in detail to the public view and her own unprotected self perilously flirted with danger. Passionate and obsessed, loving, and ferocious, one can only imagine the strength of the whirlwind that shook her thoughts and mind, deep inside, day and night.

With the desire to highlight this rhythm, far from the biographical tale or psychological play, The Fury of My Thoughts is a collage of her texts, that, at times, are transposed into songs. Above all, it is an homage to this young woman and her brilliant mind.

By Marie Brassard

Biographical Notes

Marie Brassard, Adaptation and Direction

Brassard is an author, director and actress. She builds her work on the slopes of our virtual and imagined realities, producing highly innovative pieces of great imagination and maturity that reﬂect her timeless sense of theatricality and passionate interest in digital technology.

In 2001, she initiated a solo career, founding her own production company, Infrarouge, and creating her ﬁrst solo piece, Jimmy. This play was a major turning point in her artistic career, leading to critical acclaim and continuous touring over many years.

Working in close collaboration with musicians and visual artists, she creates surreal theatre works that reveal her virtuoso acting skills and highly innovative approach to video, light, and sound design. Blending voice and music, crossing divergent levels of reality, her productions carry the audience into a world in which the relationship between humans and technology becomes as intimate as that between the performer and her audience.

In 2016, Brassard was awarded the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec, an honorary distinction highlighting her exceptional contribution to the Quebec artistic community. In 2022, she was awarded the Siminovitch prize, the most prestigious theatre accolade in Canada, for the innovative nature of her work.

Sophie Cadieux, Original Idea and Development and Performer

Upon graduating from the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal in 2001, Cadieux emerged as a multifaceted artist. Particularly carving her own path within the Montreal theatrical scene, she has accumulated a body of work encompassing over 30 performances. Additionally, she is an author, director, host, and artistic advisor on various projects, as well as being known as a skillful improviser. In recent years, she has assumed the lead role in the series Lâcher prise, as well as delivering a notable performance in Chouchou by Marie-Claude Blouin and Félix Tétreault. Since 2020, she has been gaining more prominence on television, notably in the series Bête Noire, directed by Sophie Deraspe. On stage, Cadieux’s résumé is rich and diverse. Recently, she has showcased exceptional talent in the revival of The Fury of My Thoughts, 4.48 Psychose, La vie utile among others. Her solo theatre piece Féministe pour Homme was well-received.

Christine Beaulieu, Performer

Inspired actor and author since 2003, Beaulieu has been a part of more than two dozen plays and films, notably Le Mirage. She was the lead role in Nouveau-Québec and earned a nomination at the 24th Gala Québec Cinéma in the Best Actress/Supporting Role category for her role in Norbourg. In addition, she was in the films Les Tricheurs, 23 Décembre, Simple comme Sylvain and Frontières.

Since 2015, she has been performing her first text J’aime Hydro, for which she won the Michel Tremblay Award. She also won a Gémeaux Award for her interpretation of Josiane in Lâcher prise (2020) as well as a Bayard Award for Best Interpretation in Short Film at the FIFF Namur for her performance in Un jour de fête (2020). Since February 2021, she has been at the centre of L’oeil du cyclone on Radio-Canada, for which she won two Gémeaux prizes (2021-2023) for Best Leading Actress: Comedy.

Laurence Dauphinais, Performer

A multidisciplinary creator, director, playwright, screenwriter and actress, Dauphinais is a feminist creator who is interested in the notion of hybridity between forms, and who claims the right not to be an expert in anything. She likes to think of innovative ways to stage content that is strongly rooted in reality and to create engaging experiences for an ever-changing audience.

Some of her noteworthy creative works include: the collective creation iShow which she co-directed, and her stage adaptation of the sound documentary Aalaapi, a production that won the CTDA Playwrighting Award and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Awards. She also co-created and directed Si jamais vous nous écoutez and Siri, directed the generative music show Lumens game by video phase as well as her show Cyclorama, a bilingual documentary pilgrimage that she also wrote and performed in. Dauphinais is often invited to conferences that question the use of AI and science in the creation of new artistic works.

Johanne Haberlin, Performer

Haberlin has been expanding her career as an actress since her graduation from the National Theater School of Canada two decades ago. In addition to her work as an actress, she has also ventured into directing, serving as an artistic advisor, and imparting her knowledge as a teacher.

With close to 50 theatre productions to her name, Haberlin has garnered recognition for her leading roles directed by esteemed figures such as Claude Poissant, Marie Brassard, Olivier Choinière, to name a few. On the big screen, she has collaborated on six films by Denis Côté, including the notable work Curling and the latest production by Nicolas Krief, Opération Carcajou. On the television front, she has taken on episodic roles in series like Victor Lessard and Ruptures, along with appearing in the television adaptation of Rachel Graton’s play La nuit du 4 au 5 and the documentary about Nelly Arcan by Rafaël Ouellet for Télé-Québec.

Marie-Laurence Moreau, Performer

A graduate of the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal, Moreau has collaborated in theatre with author and director Philippe Ducros on L’Assassinat d’Andrew Jackson, L’Affiche and Eden Motel. She has performed in Serge Denoncourt’s productions – Il Campiello and Projet Andromaque and in Five Kings – L’Histoire de notre chute by Olivier Kemeid, directed by Frédéric Dubois.

This season, Moreau performed in Chimerica directed by Charles Dauphinais and Jamais, toujours, parfois directed by Brigitte Poupart. On the small screen, she performed in the touching series Une autre histoire, Plan B (III) and Stat. For five seasons now, she plays Cindy in the comedy Leo. She can also be seen in the latest seasons of Portrait Robot and À coeur battant. On the big screen, she can be seen in Bluff, Les 3 p’tits cochons, Dédé à travers les brumes and Viking.

Ève Pressault, Performer

A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada in 2004, Pressault has since had multiple stage experiences, both in theatre and dance.

Within the theatre scene in Montreal, Pressault has worked with Claude Poissant in Cinq visages pour Camille Brunelle presented at the Avignon Festival in 2014. She also worked with Alice Ronfard in Chroniques for which she received a lot of praise from the public and journalists. Among her performances are Hamlet, Opéra de Quat’sous, Nathan Transmissions, La femme la plus dangereuse du Québec, Sous la nuit solitaire and La brèche. She was part of the cast of Le virus et la proie presented at the Festival TransAmériques, as well as Wollstonecraft in 2023. Also in 2023, Pressault starred in the frantic play Parents et amis sont invités à y assister. On television, amongst others she played Clarah Girard in 30 Vies, Agent Tardif in Unité 9, Estelle Malenfant in Malenfant. She also played Nathalie in Faits divers.

Anne Thériault, Performer

A 43-year-old singular creator and performer, Thériault has forged multiple collaborations with artists from diverse backgrounds since 2005. She is a founding member of Lorganisme, a choreographer collective focusing on a shared artistic practice. Since 2021, Thériault has been a visiting researcher at L’L, a centre located in Brussels for experimental research in performing arts, where she focuses on research around aging and current writings. In addition to the above, she works on new research projects, collaborates with artists as a dramaturgical accompanist and acts as a guest curator for various events as part of the Montreal arts scene. She also occasionally teaches at the Dance Department of the Université du Québec à Montréal and in Quebec’s collegiate institutions.

Antonin Sorel, Set and Properties Design

Born in Montreal in 1971, Sorel is a self-taught artist and designer, who is now based in Marseille. Between 2001 and 2009, he worked in a company specialising in the design of objects and spaces as well as in the organisation of in situ artistic events. Since 2009, it is under the name Antonin Sorel Design that he has created furniture and designed public places and private homes.

Collaborating with Marie Brassard since 2007, he has created the stage design for several of her productions including The Glass Eye, The Fury of My Thoughts, Eclipse, The Useful Life and Violence. Lately, he created the scenography for an exhibition of video works by the inventive artist Sabrina Ratté in Paris.

Sorel was artistic director for films by directors Karim Hussein, Vanya Rose and Sophie Deraspe. He is currently developing the visual concept for Marie Brassard’s first feature film entitled The Train.

Alexander MacSween, Music

Composer, musician and sound designer, MacSween, has traversed many musical genres and participated in numerous dance, theatre and film projects. Notable stage collaborations include productions by Marie Brassard, Brigitte Haentjens, Alonso King LINES Ballet, and The Stratford Festival. His music was most recently heard in the New York City premiere of François Girard’s production of The Hunting Gun at the Baryshnikov Arts Centre. MacSween is active as a drummer and multi-instrumentalist playing rock, electronic, and improvised music. His solo performances and sound installations have been heard at MUTEK, Le Mois Multi, CitySonic and The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.

Mikko Hynninen, Lights

Hynninen is an artist whose primary materials are sound and light. Trained both in the fine arts and as a light and sound designer, his work is moving between the theatre stage, contemporary music performance and the art galleries. He has collaborated on numerous theatre and dance productions as lighting designer.

Disclaimer
The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government provides liaison and technical support to the project only. Any views/opinions expressed by the project team are those of the project only and do not reflect the views of the Cultural Affairs Bureau.