Advertisement

Culture Theatre

Albertine En Cinq Temps (Albertine In Five Times)

ALBERTINE EN CINQ TEMPS (ALBERTINE IN FIVE TIMES) by Michel Tremblay (Theatre Francais de Toronto/Theatre la Catapulte). At the Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley). To April 28 (some English surtitled performances). $28-$57, some pwyc and rush. See listings. 416-534-6604. See listing. Rating: NNN

One person can be so many people in the course of a life – an idea fleshed out powerfully in Michel Tremblay’s 1984 memory play Albertine In Cinq Temps, in which we see the title character at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70, each age played by a different actor.

Theatre de francais de Toronto and Theatre de Catapulte’s co-production, performed in French (English surtitles are available at select performances), is generally strong but could be more effective.

Albertine is an ordinary working-class woman whose life contains much heartbreak, which she’s covered up over the years in layers of anger, denial and even a period of pill-popping forgetfulness.

At 70, she’s committed to a seniors’ home and revisits her earlier selves as if to make peace with them. Also present is her pretty sister Madeleine (Genevieve Dufour).

Director Jean-Stephane Roy gets mostly solid work from his cast, particularly Patricia Marceau as the breezy 50-year-old restaurant server who’s clearly got secrets under her apron, and Lyne Tremblay as the 60-year-old so deep in depression she’s literally crawling on the floor, her voice a guttural cry.

Less successful at mining their characters are Marie-Helene Fontaine and Melanie Beauchamp as the oldest and youngest Albertines.

For a play that’s already dense with overlapping incidents and stories, some of Roy’s choices seem odd. The focus on a plush red curtain – designed by Brian Smith – at the beginning and end, as if to emphasize the work’s theatricality, becomes distracting.

And Benoit Brunet-Poirier’s lighting design uses hanging bare bulbs and a ghost light – a theatre tradition – for metaphysical or metafictional effects that don’t always succeed.

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.