La voix de la mer coming up at Par-en-bas
Not that they didn’t already have a genuine appreciation for the dangers faced by those who make their living on the water, but a few weeks ago the cast members of La voix de la mer – a musical to be presented at École secondaire de Par-en-Bas in April – were hit with the reality of what the sea can do.
La voix de la mer (or, in English, The Voice of the Sea) is set in a seafaring community and explores the impact the ocean can have on those who live close to it.
In early January, as they were heading into the last three months or so of rehearsals for the show, those involved in the production learned that Mike Doucette, a young man who just a couple of years ago was still attending high school at Par-enBas, had been lost while lobster fishing.
Yvette d’Entremont, who wrote La voix de la mer and who is directing and producing the show, says Doucette was in her drama class four years ago and that Brandon Doucette, a member of the cast of La voix de la mer, was a second cousin to Mike Doucette. At least a couple of the cast members knew him very well, she said.
“He was a likable guy, beautiful smile,” d’Entremont said in an interview following a recent after-school rehearsal with some of the cast members.
There is a tragedy in La voix de la mer – a fictional one – but, of course, no one involved in the production was ready for a real-life tragedy to happen so close to home the way it did and when it did. After all, d’Entremont wrote the script and songs for this show two years ago, drawing her inspiration from what had happened in many fishing communities in the past and how they had coped with it. If they were presenting the show right now, d’Entremont admits, it would be very hard.
“It is going to be difficult anyway,” she said, “but we all talked together and they (cast members) said ‘we really need to do this … to honour Mike and all of those who have been lost at sea.’”
Show dates for La voix de la mer are April 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27. It will be presented in the Pere Maurice LeBlanc theatre.
The title is from a song d’Entremont wrote and released a decade ago on her first CD.
“I took the song and I created a story around it,” she said. “The song was originally about Pubnico … I (made) it generic so that it applied to any seafaring community.”
Two years in the making, the show has required a great deal of time and effort, she says.
While d’Entremont took on an ambitious theatrical project a few years back with Roméo et Juliette, the big difference with this one is that La voix de la mer is an original work by d’Entremont, so she was essentially starting from scratch.
The show has 19 songs that will be available on CD. The plan is to have the disc on sale at Par-en-Bas during the run of the show in April.
About 50 people are involved in the production, including onstage, backstage and behind the scenes. The cast members include students and staff.
People who come out for the show can expect “some incredible numbers, great dancing, special effects, as well as some poignant moments, for sure,” she said.
The cast has been great to work with, she said, adding that the students are “mature beyond their years.”
Referring to their hope that the show will honour Mike Doucette and the many others who have been lost at sea, d’Entremont spoke of the production’s “message of solidarity to those of us needing comfort from each other in these hard times.”