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04.26 TO 05.02 2001

hour

(cuts)
WOMAN ON

photo Luc Senecal

THE VERGE
Nathalie Derome has been one of the land's pre-eminent theatre
artists for a long time, but she is not widely known by the general public because she operates in the very rarefied air of performance art. My reactions to her work since the first piece I saw S'allumer contre le vent, Poeme sur pattes - have been similar to
everyone's reactions: up, down and sideways. When she performed at the last edition of the Festival de Theatre des
Ameriques even the promotional material for her piece, Les 4
rpnds sont allumgs, described it as " hard to classify." Derome's
international reputation has grown partly because she has kept
herself informed about, and used, the emerging technologies
available to theatre artists - computers, new lighting techniques
and materials for stage design.
Well, all bets are off for her new work, Du temps d'antennes,
as Derome is calling it a "solo low-tech." Here she brings together
words both spoken and sung to illustrate the plight of a woman who
wants to flee the high-tech world and return to solitude in order to
explore the space bounded by her own body, her sex, her language,
culture and memory. Derome has called upon semiotics expert
Daniel Vaillancourt and visual artist Yvon Proulx to aid and abet.
Be warned: Derome's work is always challenging, but if you meet
the challenge it can also be utterly exhilarating.
GAETAN L. CHARLEBOIS
Du temps des antennes is playing in a found space, 813 Ontario E (the
ex-Centre d'Artistes Copie-Art), April 25 to May 6, $14-$17; 270-1467