Pôle sud

Jacqueline, ex-stripper. Serge, sculptor-welder. Johanne, former drug addict. They all live in the Centre-Sud district of Montreal. On stage, within the walls of a teen’s bedroom or a high school, places heavy with people’s lived experience and most intimate moments. Reinventing the codes of documentary theatre through a cinematographic narration, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and Émile Proulx-Cloutier touchingly dress some of their portraits.

They are eight anonymous people with their unique paths, in a discreet but extraordinary neighbourhood. Between the Radio-Canada tower and the festive energy of the gay village, they lived improbable lives. They were invited at the Espace Libre theatre, just a few streets away, to reveal themselves in a scenic way, first in audio form, then through a delicate staging of the human presence. A powerful theatre of truth, Pôle sud reminds us to what extent all destinies, even the seemingly ordinary ones, are always deeply moving.