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by Philippe Soldevila & Christian Essiambre, directed by Philippe Soldevila

Théâtre français de Toronto, Théâtre Sortie de Secours & Théâtre L’Escaouette, Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, Toronto

November 28-December 2, 2012

“... je ne laisserai plus les bouts tristes briser tout le reste”

If you want to see an absolutely amazing one-man performance, you should rush to see Les Exils de Christian E.  You have to rush because the show is here only until December 2.  Yes, the play is in French and in Acadian French besides, but there are English surtitles performances on November 29 and 30 and two on December 1.  The play not only tells a gripping family story but also gives us an insight into Acadian culture that provides a much needed contrast to the overly cozy view most of us have from plays like Antonine Maillet’s beloved La Sagouine.

Actor Christian Essiambre is the “Christian E.” of the title.  The story is his true story that director Philippe Soldevila has helped shape into a play.  When we first meet Christian, he is in his basement apartment in Montreal trying to perfect a mime exercise.  After graduating from the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of Moncton, the native of McKendrick, NB, worked for eight years as Tom Pouce at Le Pays de la Sagouine in Bouctouche, NB, that Essiambre describes as a kind of Acadian Disney World.  He has moved to Montreal to find out whether he can play any other roles than Tom Pouce.  Since his Acadian accent holds him back from finding work, he is taking lessons to rid himself of it.  Meanwhile, when he does not study mime, his days are filled with playing online video games and waiting for his girlfriend, an internist, to come home.  Because of her job, when she returns is highly variable and can be extremely late. 

With his debts mounting and little hope of work on the horizon, Christian is falling into depression.  A phone call from his mother suddenly gives him a purpose.  Mike, one of his cousins, has gone missing and his mother wants Christian to find him.  Christian’s mother is one of fifteen siblings, the first seven all girls, and it so happened that his mother and three of her sisters gave birth to four boys all in the space of seven days – Jeff, Marc, Christian and Daniel.  These four cousins grew up together and expected to be friends for life.  Their leader and idol was Jeff, but he disappeared ten years ago.  Since then the remaining three have had difficulty in coping with life.  Marc had the most trouble falling in with abad crowd in Moncton and getting involved with drugs.  Christian’s quest to find Marc becomes a quest to reclaim his identity.                      

Essiambre is a charismatic performer.  Both and actor and an acrobat, he tells his tale, impersonating at least 20 characters, male and female, in the space of only 80 minutes with verbal and physical precision.  These include his three cousins, his mother and father, his girlfriend, his speech coach, an array of people on the Montreal subway, old acting buddies and a wide range of characters he meets on his journey.  The stage is completely bare except for a single chair.  But that makes no difference because Essiambre fills every inch of the space with his energy.  My only complaint is that after seeing Christian practice his mime at the start, I was not initially certain whether he was imitating people he knew while alone in his room or actually flashing back to previous encounters.  All soon becomes clear and you soon are astounded by Essiambre’s chameleonic ability.     

Just as Essiambre has the ability to morph from characters to another in a split second, his story flips back in forth in time from the present time of his search from Marc to re-creations of the good times the four cousins has while growing up.  Yet, even in these re-creations, the Christian of the present is looking for signs of what would cause foursome to go into “voluntary deportation” – a reference to the forced deportation of the Acadians by the British from 1755 to 1763. 

In his credits, Essiambre thanks Antonine Maillet and Viola Léger.  That is good to know since his most hilarious impersonation is of the wonderful Mme Léger as La Sagouine.  The idyllic nature of Acadia fostered by Maillet’s stories and embodied in Léger’s legendary performance is something Essiambre’s own story deliberately works against.  The theme park devoted to La Sagouine, has, in Essiambre’s view, promoted an image of Acadian that appeals to tourists but does not represent the Acadia of the present.  Essiambre’s most devastating portraits are of those tourists who come to Le Pays de la Sagouine to see how “colourful” and “quaint” the Acadian are.  Christian E.’s own story is filled with colourful characters but danger, disillusionment and irreparable loss are its main components. 

Les 3 Exils de Christian E. is a powerful drama not just about the contemporary Acadian experience but about the loss of an ideal and the search to find another to replace it.  The three cousins worship of Jeff as their hero suppressed an inquiry into who they each were as people.  Holding up their childhood as a the best time of their life prevented the cousins from making a successful transition to adulthood.  With Jeff’s disappearance and now Marc’s, Christian has to discover what he can retrieve from the past to rebuilt himself in the present.  This is certain not a problem specific to Christian.  Anyone faces it who has to find some way to move beyond the past.  Christian E.’s story may be based on specific biographic detail but as a play it has universal appeal.  For a compelling story told by a fantastic dynamo of a performer, don’t miss it.

              

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Christian Essiambre. ©2012 Nicola Frank Vachon.

For tickets, visit www.theatrefrancais.com.