Laura and Samara spend their days as non-profit unicorns and fill every spare minute exploring the world of musical theatre as BFFs (that’s Broadway Friends Forever). Follow @bffs613 on X, Instagram and Facebook.
Renard Doux is a French-language show, playing at the National Arts Centre until Aug. 8. Created and performed by Sylvie Gosselin, the paper-craft theatre of objects tells a sweet and heartwarming story of generational relationships. We got to chat with Sylvie, creator, performer and visual artist of this one-woman show to learn more about what you can expect from Renard Doux.
This has been translated from the original French.
Apt613: What was the inspiration for telling this story through the medium of paper-craft?
Sylvie: The idea for my fourth show was born during a trip to Japan. Returning home with lots of paper and inspired by all the cultural and artistic wonders I’d discovered during my stay, I began the research and exploration for my new creation. I wanted to create a theatre of objects made entirely of paper and cardboard: a small, intimate form. So I put together a team of designers (lighting and sound) as well as collaborators and outside eyes.
After creating a bank of works made up of drawings, collages and 3D artifacts, it soon became clear that my relationship with my granddaughter would be the starting point for my project. So I decided to tell the story of a special moment between a child, Renard Doux, and her Mamou.
Apt613: What made you want to tell the story of a relationship between characters of different generations?
Sylvie: Since the arrival of grandchildren in my life — I now have four — I’ve discovered the richness of these intergenerational relationships, a relationship based on pleasure, love, discovery and mutual exchange. Without any obligations or constraints inherent in the organization of family life, being a grandparent means living in the present moment with your grandchild, being at their level, listening to them and, above all, enjoying each other’s company. A child teaches you as much as we adults can teach them. And you don’t need a blood relationship to have these experiences. Time and again, I’ve received art lessons, lessons in resilience and life lessons from children with whom I’ve worked on art projects in schools!
Children are great human beings, full of wisdom, curious and eager to learn. They are also sponges who absorb everything we can impart to them. Being with them is an immensely rich experience, and that’s what I want to convey in this story, filled with tenderness, complicity, humour and creativity.
Sylvie Gosselin in Renard Doux. Photo provided.
Apt613: As a performer but also a creator what does it feel like to bring a story like this to life through every stage of the process from beginning to end?
Sylvie: My creative process consists in first conceiving works around the theme I wish to develop. Drawings, collages, paintings, assemblages of found objects and installations are always the starting points for my theatrical creations. I then invite collaborators to explore, reflect, improvise and write with me, using my visual artifacts as a starting point. Ideas, bits of stories and situations take shape. By going back and forth between research residencies with my accomplices and working alone in my studio, I gradually build up the show.
I’m always fascinated to see how the work evolves and unfolds. It’s as if, at the outset, I’m faced with thousands of puzzle pieces, each of which inevitably finds its place in the final tableau.
For Renard Doux, a solo show, my challenge was also to find a way of playing the two characters. How, without falling into caricature and cliché, to interpret with truth, clarity and fluidity of a four/five-year-old child and an older person.
It’s a long process, lasting at least two years, which requires hard work, questioning, mistakes and sometimes agonizing choices to be made, but which also brings the euphoria of creation and the satisfaction of having found the solutions to tell, with sensitivity and originality, a story that will reach the spectator, young and old!
Apt613: What are you hoping the experience will be like for audiences when seeing Renard Doux?
Sylvie: The nicest comment I get from the audience at the end of the show is: “Thank you! Let’s go home and tinker with papers!” With next-to-nothing, handmade and cobbled-together artifacts, I propose an aesthetic form that’s off the beaten track and inspires the audience to delve into their imagination and creativity. Playing very close to the audience, I want them to feel the gentleness of this relationship and the well-being that comes from the mutual trust between the two characters.
I wanted to create a simple, poetic show, based on my personal experience and artistic expression, which I hope will reach out and touch the hearts of all spectators.
Renard Doux (in French only) takes place from Aug. 5-8 at the National Arts Centre. Shows are Monday and Tuesday at 2pm and Wednesday and Thursday at 11am. It runs approximately 40 minutes with no intermission. Performances will have a Q&A session after the show with the performer. Tickets are $8.
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