Diving Horse Creations – A Tale of Perseverance
La Presse, Thursday, March 20, 2003

Buffoons and the absurd are as prevalent in the news these days as they are in the theatre. Diving Horse Creations is inviting audiences to witness a demonstration of the abuse of power at Théâtre de la Chapelle as a group, rather than sitting alone in front of the television set. The company is remounting Ionesco’s La Leçon before heading off to Edinburgh this summer, where it will present Daniil Harms’ Elizavieta Bam.

The time seemed right for a review of the work of this company, which has discreetly but always with relevance, originality and perseverance been participating in Montreal’s theatrical life for the past 13 years.

“The absurd is an observation on the state of humanity,” notes Phoebe Greenberg, the company’s founder and artistic director. After studying theatre at Concordia University, this actress, artist and photographer studied with Jacques Lecoq in Paris and with LEM (Laboratoire Étude du Mouvement). Upon returning to Montreal in 1990, this Francophile founded Diving Horse Creations in order to offer theatre based on parody but with an approach rooted in a strong aesthetic tradition.

“For me the company was a way to link several of my interests – visual art, theatre and the great classics. Then I met Louis Hudon, who is also very interested in the visual aspect of performance. We did two shows together, La Couronne des douze étoiles (written by Phoebe Greenberg, Isabelle Hayeur and Julie Rosenberg) and L’École des bouffons (by Michel de Ghelderode). Later on, we worked together again on Michel Azama’s Croisades.

And later still, Phoebe Greenberg encountered Oleg Kisseliov. The Russian director and actor, who moved to Quebec in the late 1980s, has developed a method of physical and psychological training that he calls the "creative impulse" method. After two collaborations with Théâtre La Veillée – Shakespeare’s Le Songe d’une nuit d’été in 1998 and Nabokov’s Camera obscura in 2001 – he began working with Diving Horse, which by then had evolved the buffoon style in favour of the theatre of the absurd with La Leçon and Elizavieta Bam.

“I realized that the absurd also allows for movement and physical theatre,” she explains. “I want theatre to be open to all sorts of interpretations, with the presentation not limited by a narrative context. I am interested in exploring major themes in theatre.”

In La Leçon, the dynamics of domination and submission are at play. Oleg Kisseliov has used this short play by Ionesco to create a very disturbing atmosphere, giving voice to the impulses and neuroses of the characters. In the version that is now back at the Théâtre la Chapelle, Caroline Binet and Gaétan Nadeau have replaced Noémie Godin-Vigneault and Patrice Savard in the leading roles of the student and the professor. Jocelyn Caron, Phoebe Greenberg, Karyne Lemieux and Christophe Rapin make up the rest of the cast.

“Oleg is very attuned to the nature of each actor. Caroline and Gaétan thus bring an element of something new to the performance,” notes the actress. In fact, the creative impulse method seeks to highlight the personality of each performer, transforming his or her physical energy into psychic energy, stimulating the imagination and freeing up breathing and the voice.

“Since the shape of the performance has already been discovered and defined, each actor has been able to work in greater depth. That’s a significant element of a remount.” Another interesting aspect of redoing the show was organizational in nature. “It would have been a bit difficult starting over from scratch with a new play this year, as we will also be taking Élizaviéta Bam on tour,” admits Phoebe Greenberg.

The play by the Russian writer Daniil Harms, one of the initiators of theatre of the absurd, was presented at Théâtre la Chapelle in March 2002. Thanks to contacts made at the last CINARS event (an international performing arts trade fair), it will be presented at the Gateway Theatre in Scotland as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which takes place from August 3 to 25, 2003. The Quebec company will be giving some twenty performances in a 400-seat theatre. That is no mean feat, especially for their first venture outside Montreal.

If this opening to touring appears welcome, Ms. Greenberg’s priority remains nonetheless to establish a forum for creation, a place where artists have an opportunity to excel. “It isn’t often possible in Quebec to go all the way with a creative approach, for all sorts of reasons including time constraints. Here we try to find solutions.”

The artistic director remains evasive regarding her theatre company’s future projects, but did reveal that one of her fondest wishes is to open an art gallery under the Diving Horse Creations banner. “Not a commercial gallery, but an exhibition space. I’m very interested in contemporary art,” notes this jack-of-all-trades.

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