September 18, 2000
Daniel Meilleur
Artistic Director: Les Deux
Mondes
April 7: Tale of Teeka
Established in 1973, the Montreal-based theater company has earned a reputation for
dealing with controversial material in a forthright and compelling manner. Tale
of Teeka, told from the viewpoint of the goose Teeka, is the story of a friendship
between a young boy and his pet and deals with the issue of domestic violence. The
powerful fable of survival has won numerous awards and been performed nearly 400
times in theaters around the world. As with all stories performed by Les Deux Mondes,
Teeka was developed over several years through a unique collaborative process that
involved the author, director, designers, actors, and adult and child audiences.
Meilleur, whose English is far better than this reporter's French, valiantly communicated
his ideas in his second language during a recent phone interview.
"Brecht always said that first what is important in theater is good entertainment,
and I agree with him. In the case of Tale of Teeka, that is certainly true.
It is entertaining. But that doesn't mean that it is only fun--the story touches
on a part that exists deep inside each human being, which is our tendency to violence.
Everyone is born with it and then, growing up, we learn to manage it in a way that
enables us to live constructively in society.
Another important aspect of theater is that it is performed by human beings--living,
emotional humans. In that way, theater can touch a person very differently from television
or movies, simply because the physical presence of the body delivers something more.
That's why you have to tell the truth in theater--you can't get away with lies, it's
obvious right away.
Theater, also, is very tactile, and that is very important to me. That's why we involve
all the designers from the beginning when we can. The way we are creating, the process
of involving everyone, brings on the stage a synergy between all the arts that creates
an incredibly rich and meaningful tapestry."
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