Credit: David Cooper
At The York Theatre until May 27, 2018
Tickets from $20 at tickets.thecultch.com/604-251-1363
Posted May 18, 2018
From a charming play about a dog (The Best Brothers) and the ridiculous but fun (Mamma Mia!) to the earnest (Les Filles du Roi), it’s been an all-over-the-map kind of week at the theatre.
A new musical by co-creators Corey Payette (music) and Julie McIsaac (lyrics), Les Filles du Roi follows Payette’s Children of God on the York stage back in June, 2017. And with the same design team of Marshall McMahen (set/costume/props) and Jeff Harrison (lighting), Les Filles has much the same look: lush, layered, landscaped. It’s gorgeous and highly evocative of early Eastern Canada with leafless trees, ships’ sails, and a First Nations house interior strung with drying fish. There are times when there seems little room left for the action but this cast, under the direction of Payette, manages to avoid stumbling over the scenery even when the ensemble is dancing (under the movement direction of Patrice Bowler).
A neat trick – simply stepping in and out of coats – transforms the chorus of six women in long skirts and white-collared jackets – into men. While the costume credits also go to McMahen, ‘beadwork design’ is by Konwahonwá:wi Stacey, a Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) Turtle Clan. The costumes, while appropriate and obviously well-researched, look a little too clean, though: after weeks at sea those long skirts would be grubby – although what we might be seeing are the ‘trousseau’ clothes paid for by the King of France. Jean-Baptiste (Raes Calvert in shirt and leggings of leather and tall moccasins decorated with fancy beadwork) doesn’t look like he’s ever handled bloody furs, fish or firewood. Nitpicking, perhaps, but it makes the production look overtly ‘staged’.
The period is 1663-1673 during which Louis XIV sent about 800 unmarried women (mostly between the age of 12 and 25) to New France to remedy the imbalance of men to women and to colonize the territory. In short, to make babies.
The women had no idea of the harshness of the country they were coming to and Les Filles du Roi really highlights this fact. The women are all eager to marry before snowfall because without a man to house and feed them, they will not likely survive. “I’m trapped in this infernal winter”, Marie-Jeanne (Julie McIsaac) laments.
The story revolves around Marie-Jeanne, one of Les Filles du Roi, and Mohawks Kateri (Kaitlyn Yott) and her fur trader brother Jean-Baptiste. Marie-Jeanne longs for ‘space’ and ‘freedom to explore’ but her marriage to Clarke (Andrew Cohen), hastily arranged by Madame Savoie (Laura Di Cicco), allows for neither.
More than a romance, it’s a tale of reconciliation that the play suggests is the direction Canada needs to take. It’s feminist in its approach: Mohawk culture, apparently, held women in high esteem; the highest position in the various clans was Clan Mother, a position in this play to which Kateri aspires.
Credit: Tim Matheson
And while not as anti-Catholic as Children of God, it puts the Church in a pretty bad light. Madame Savoie, the nun who supervises the women upon their arrival, abuses them both physically and emotionally.
With music by Payette and lyrics by McIsaac, Les Filles du Roi is a musical in three languages: French, English and Kanien’kéha (Mohawk), with translations projected stage left and right. Having to look left or right is a problem; surtitles directly over centre stage allows the audience to see the action and read the text more easily. The music is more operatic than ‘popular’ and presents some difficulties for the singers. Onstage musicians (Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, Molly MacKinnon, John Kastelic and Rebecca Wenham) provide a haunting soundscape throughout as well as accompaniment to the singers.
Co-produced by Fugue Theatre and Raven Theatre in association with Urban Ink and The Cultch, Les Filles du Roi often feels more like a project than a musical production. Several years in the making with a tremendous amount of research – including travel back and forth across the country – it’s heartfelt, ambitious and tremendously earnest. The opening night audience responded enthusiastically to a wrap-up scene and song that had everyone on stage – French, English and Mohawk – sharing knowledge and getting along. It’s more like a hope for the future than the way it is. While Kinder Morgan continues to prepare for its pipeline expansion, the Tsleil-waututh’s opposition grows. The executives of Kinder Morgan should see Les Filles du Roi and see what sharing knowledge looks like.