After its premiere at Trident, Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves is on display at Duceppe. A (long) funny and touching show, between requiem and celebrations.
Adapted from a successful novel which recounts the evolution of AIDS in the 80s and 90s, among a group of young homosexual friends in Stockholm, Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves is a work of memory and an educational tool. The play, like the book (adapted into a miniseries in Sweden), reminds us that it is still important to return to this epidemic and its devastation among the homosexual community and those close to it.
Alexandre Fecteau creates an inventive and demanding production for the actors. The tears of the title are visible with showers of water on the stage. The actors, sometimes completely soaked, often move elements of the decor. A beautiful scenography made up of dark gray blocks, representing the steles in homage to the deceased. Behind the stage, a quartet of musicians, piano and strings, under the direction of Anne-Marie Bernard, supports the story with a musical score inspired by a Mendelssohn concerto. Which gives a solemn note to this drama which turns into a massacre.
The show, which lasts three and a half hours, is not without lengths. Of course, you have to take the time to properly establish the characters. However, the constant use of a narrator who puts the epidemic and the struggle for LGBTQ rights into context (the Stonewall riots, the assassination of Harvey Milk) weighs down an already very dense story.
In a cast of 12 actors, actor Maxime Robin is brilliant. And hilarious! He plays Paul, the “great crazy unifier”, doubled as a “mother hen for lost gays”. A character both dandy and vulgar, outrageous and touching. Like a cross between the Duchess of Langeais and Oscar Wilde.
Olivier Arteau also excels in the role of Rasmus, a young activist who fled his village at 18 to experience his homosexuality in Stockholm; and be himself in his new chosen family. Her lover Benjamin, in eternal conflict with his Jehovah’s Witness parents, is portrayed with great sensitivity by Maxime Beauregard-Martin. Hugues Frenette, in the role of Rasmus’ father, a good man, but overwhelmed by his son’s sexual orientation, delivers a remarkable performance. His reaction to his son’s illness, and the moment in the hospital, where he forbids Benjamin from attending Rasmus’ funeral, are disturbing scenes.
