Advertisement

News

Slague: Lhistoire Dun Mineur

SLAGUE, L’HISTOIRE D’UN MINEUR by Mansel Robinson, translated and performed by Jean Marc Dalpe (Theatre du Nouvel-Ontario/Theatre Francais de Toronto). At Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs (26 Berkeley). Runs to Sunday (April 11), Thursday-Saturday 8 pm, matinees Saturday 3:30 pm and Sunday 2:30 pm. $24-$46. 416-534-6604. See listing. Rating: NNN

The mining disaster in West Virginia earlier this week gives an added edge and greater poignance to Slague: L’histoire D’un Mineur, Jean Marc Dalpe’s translation of Mansel Robinson’s Spitting Slag. The touring production is in town for a brief run.[rssbreak]

Dalpe is also is the solo performer, playing Pierre, a miner transformed by an accident at work into a bitter, wheelchair-bound addict (morphine and alcohol) trying to understand his life and the loss of his son Johnny, also a miner.

It’s also about the importance of talk around the kitchen table, where the essential elements of Pierre’s history are relived, dissected and eventually brought to closure.

The script is full of telling realistic details and a touch of poetry that lifts it above the ordinary. Pierre describes a miner, for instance, as an intelligent worm who crawls into the earth, eats rock, shits money and dies.

A charismatic storyteller, Dalpe captures Pierre’s honesty, passion and pain. Working with director Genevieve Pineault and sound designer Aymar, he also creates several other characters whose ghostly, over-dubbed voices trail off from Pierre’s own voice.

The script has a number of strong moments. Pierre offers a daily account of what he did to pass the time after an explosion traps him underground: singing Ramones songs, telling jokes, drinking his urine, puking and imagining the mine goblins who haunt the shafts.

The tale of his son Johnny, whose hockey career is ended with a blown knee, is just as striking, as are Johnny’s ghostly visits.

Dalpe also transforms into a journalist and the journalist’s art-school-educated, trendy girlfriend Pierre turns to them both for help of various kinds, aiming to get revenge and justice for what’s happened to his life.

Intending to reveal the problems in an industry where the aim is to make profit, not protect people’s lives, Pierre takes a step that ironically lead to his own arrest.

Throughout the production, Pierre takes Polaroid snaps of himself, as if accumulating a portrait of who he is and what he’s been through.

As good as the production is, there’s something missing for someone like me with limited French. The surtitles don’t translate all the text, and while I understood the core of the piece, I felt that I wasn’t getting all its poetic nuances. At times I found myself reading the text rather than watching Dalpe’s committed, gritty performance.

Add another N to the rating if you’re bilingual this is one production that’s better appreciated in the original.

Slague is performed with surtitles Friday night and Saturday matinee.

jonkap@nowtoronto.com

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted