Le gardien des enfants
Performance
Duration: 55 minutes
Audience Advisory: This production is intended for a mature audience due to its themes. Please note that the performance includes an act involving a needle.
Description
Le gardien des enfants is a theatrical performance that interrogates the imprints left by violence on the bodies and minds of those who endure it. Alone on stage, Charles Voyer recounts often blurry and painful memories—defining fragments of his past that mark the various transformations he has undergone throughout his life.
Through traumatic episodes—repeated abuse suffered in childcare services and a violent encounter with a website showing snuff films during his adolescence—he attempts to make sense of these moments that disrupted his development and continue to haunt him.
In an enigmatic ritual set in a hazy space, he navigates the labyrinth of his memory, inviting us to join his quest for peace and solace. Much like the development process of analog photography in a darkroom, images emerge gradually, bathed in an eerie reddish light. They impose themselves on our retinas and linger there, mirroring the indelible marks violence leaves on the bodies and minds of its victims.
Biography
Founded in 2018, Théâtre indépendant is an interdisciplinary, queer-focused collective with a variable structure. Its core members are JJ Houle (Directing, National Theatre School of Canada, 2020), Charles Voyer (Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal, 2018), Léo Gaudreault (BFA in Visual and Media Arts, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2019), Flavie Lemée (Production, National Theatre School of Canada, 2019), and Antoine Racine (MFA, Concordia University, 2022).
To date, the collective has created two works: Quartett solo, presented at ZH Festival and Théâtre Prospero, and Le gardien des enfants, presented at OFFTA and Théâtre Prospero. In addition to planning a Canadian and European tour of this latest piece, the collective is developing Extérieur / Nuit, slated for 2025. Since 2023, Théâtre indépendant has been supported by LA SERRE – arts vivants for the delegated production of their creations.
Credits
A Théâtre indépendant Creation
Text: Charles Voyer
Director: JJ Houle
Set Design: Léo Gaudreault
Lighting Design: Flavie Lemée
Sound Design: Antoine Racine
Performer: Charles Voyer
Translation: Alégria Gobeil, Phoebe Fregoli
Images: Nicolas Biaux, Flavie Lemée
Video Editing: Léo Gaudreault
Video Subtitles: Jules Leloup-Mayrand
Date of Creation: 2022
Delegated Production: LA SERRE – arts vivants
Supported by: Conseil des arts de Montréal and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec