TEATRAM (The Group)

The com­pa­ny Le Groupe Téâ­tram (1974 – 81) emerged from the Théâtre Com­mu­nal Con­tem­po­rain (TCC, 1970 – 74), a col­lec­tive direct­ed by Richard Trem­blay. The Téâ­tram Group (the­ater com­pa­ny) was the cru­cible of the chore­o­g­ra­pher’s ear­ly stage works in the chore­o­graph­ic the­ater. Soon, the chore­o­g­ra­ph­er became involved in a the­atri­cal lab­o­ra­to­ry for the Kathakali dance-the­ater and the actor’s train­ing as well as in the inter­pre­ta­tion and cre­ation of new works evolv­ing over two decades towards his work at Danse Kalashas (1990- ), his dance com­pa­ny. Téâ­tram’s train­ing pro­gram in phys­i­cal the­ater enabled young per­form­ers to pre­pare for train­ing in Kathakali and gave them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take dance lessons in India, par­tic­i­pat­ing in the process of cre­at­ing stage works dur­ing which some of them shared the intense moments of the life and work expe­ri­ence of the Group. Richard Trem­blay’s main cre­ations at Téâ­tram are: Rhi­noc­er­os (TCC /Centre d’an­i­ma­tion théâ­trale, 1971) after Ionesco’s, and pre­sent­ed at the Gésu the­ater, Mon­tre­al; Angel and Clemen­tine (TCC, 1972), on texts from the ancient tragedy; Inter­mède (1974), chore­o­graph­ic the­ater, pre­sent­ed at the the­ater fes­ti­val of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Que­bec at Chicouti­mi; and Madam’s Being Car­ried Away (1975), after Genet’s The Maids and a mon­tage of texts by Racine and Euripi­des. The lat­ter pro­duc­tion was pre­sent­ed at the Nation­al The­ater School of New Del­hi and, in a reworked ver­sion, The Erinyes, at the New The­ater Fes­ti­val in Bal­ti­more, in 1977. The Temp­ta­tion of Saint Antho­ny (1980), adapt­ed from Gus­tave Flaubert was Téâ­tram’s last pro­duc­tion with a new team of actors. An off­shoot of the Ger­man expres­sion­ism, the chore­o­graph­ic the­ater under Johann Kres­nik (1929 – 2019) uses the text as a coun­ter­point to the dance. The Tanzthe­ater Wup­per­tal, which has evolved its own style, is anoth­er branch of the same artis­tic move­ment. The Kathakali Insti­tute and Danse Kathakali de Mon­tréal (1981 – 90) fol­lowed Le Groupe Téâ­tram.