Feb. 13, 2013 - Issue #904: The Sugar Trade

Quiet Heart

Murielle tells a tale of remembered love without words

The persistence of love through time and distance resides upon our faculty of memory, but even if we forget about our past loves, all it takes is one small trigger to experience it anew. A collaboration between Blarney and Promise Productions, Murielle places this dance between love and memory at the centre of its story: a very old woman remembering her past through a collection of returned love letters. As she reads them, they conjure memories from when she was young and in love.

Performer Alyson Dicey plays the young version of Murielle, acting out memories as they arise; she is joined onstage by an ensemble cast of her lover (Jesse Gervais) and six 'geniuses'—aspects of herself and her memories which serve to flesh out and shape past events.

Murielle is a purely movement-based show, with no dialogue or spoken words, though it does feature a live piano accompaniment composed and performed by Joel Crichton. For those who are a little hesitant or unfamiliar with physical theatre, Dicey offers reassurance that the movement of the body is a universal language.

"The movement in the show is human expression. It's not so much set choreography, but a feeling to our bodies," she says. "It's storytelling without words. This show is so relatable to all types of audiences. No matter what their background, their age or even their language, because the choreography, and the movement, and the masks in this show speaks to people in a language that's accessible to all types of audiences."



Murielle was initially conceived by playwright Ellen Chorley and director Wayne Paquette about five years ago, but Dicey explains that the cast was also heavily involved in the show's creation.
"They knew they wanted to make it a mask and movement show; they pretty much knew how it would look," Dicey says. "But then as actors came on board, we helped create the show as well. The story is written by Ellen, but we all helped create, as an ensemble, to make it really fit with our bodies."

In early October, Dicey and the other actors had a three-day workshop with Chorley, Paquette and choreographer Amber Borotsik to brainstorm some of the initial movements.
"We made a big soup of things that were possible, that we could maybe put into the show," Dicey explains.

Chorley then took these ideas away and worked on them over the next few months until the group rejoined in January; only in the last week or so has the show really attained its final form.
Murielle opens on Valentine's Day, a serendipitous occurrence that aligns perfectly with the show's central themes.

"It's almost a fable or fairy tale: a beautiful story of love, lost and found," says Dicey. "It's about memory for sure, but it's also about true love and how it floats around but it's never gone for good."

Until Sun, Feb 24 (7 pm)
Directed by Wayne Paquette
TransAlta Arts Barns, $12.50 – $18 vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus