Theatre review: Un.Deux.Trois grapples with complex questions of Franco-Canadian identity
Playwright Mani Soleymanlou’s epic trilogy unpeels layer after layer in the quest for self-understanding
Un.Deux.Trois.
Théâtre la Seizième presented Un.Deux.Trois on November 11 and 12 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre.
HOW HAS OUR collective past led to this very moment in our culture? How do our roots shape our role within modern society? Playwright Mani Soleymanlou ponders these questions and others in Un.Deux.Trois. A trilogy of plays that explores his personal history as an Iranian-born Québécois, the work also pokes fun at the discourse surrounding Franco-Canadian identity.
The triple-shot performance in French with English surtitles opens with Soleymanlou’s quest for personal understanding, unravelling the complexity of the subjects he grapples with until there are nearly 40 actors onstage.
It begins with Un, a one-man show in which the audience meets Soleymanlou as he struggles to understand what defines him. In Deux, he introduces a second character, Emmanuel Schwartz, who mirrors and contrasts his search for identity. Soleymanlou pries as he unpeels the layers of Schwartz’s identity. The audience learns that Schwartz is of Jewish-Canadian heritage and represents a sense of otherness that conflicts with the basis of Soleymanlou’s search for self-understanding.
In Trois, Soleymanlou fills the rows of empty chairs that were sitting empty on-stage in Un and Deux, introducing viewers to 36 characters who represent a subsection of the Franco-Canadian population.
Each character in Trois presents an archetype that can be found in French-Canadian society, from the conservative with an affinity for conspiracy theories to the outspoken young person who questions the ethics of Québécois traditionalism to the Indigenous woman trying to reclaim her roots after being denied her culture and language.
Dressed in all-black casual wear—from T-shirts and jeans to crop tops and overalls—the characters blend into one another, becoming an amalgamation of Franco-Canadian identity. Intertwining spoken word, arguments, dance, and a couple of Michael Jackson songs, the production attempts to comb through each character’s sense of personhood, searching for what unites and divides them all. However, any clarity that is gleaned ends up being diluted by the convolution of so many different perspectives, the plot spinning itself in circles. In the end, viewers may be left with more questions than answers.
Un.Deux.Trois. is an ambitious performance that satirizes and subverts our notions of language, diaspora, and identity. Despite having bit off more than can be chewed, the show is a bold exploration of questions of belonging that pervade Canadian culture. With a four-and-a-half-hour total runtime, the plays flow together smoothly with little tedium, even despite the storyline's repetitive nature. The audience responded with a standing ovation.
Soleymanlou concludes that the journey of understanding our history and our selves will never really be finished. Twelve years after Un’s debut, he is still searching for answers.
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