Co-Creations and Group Pieces

The Daughters of Selene

MOMENTUM Production

Presented in the project: 12 Masses for the Beginning of the End of Time

1999-2001

The Daughters of Selene, was Nathalie Claude’s first group piece as a director. In this site-specific work she explores the influence that the moon has had on Women, throughout 1000 years of history. It is a physical fresco, without words, embodied by eight actresses/dancers, and supported by an original electronic soundtrack (SUNNA/Stéphane Claude). The path of these different characters is unfolding simultaneously, giving the audience the liberty of choosing “where, who, and how to look”.

The actions are happening all over the space in the main room of a convent (and then a chapel, in it’s second version): characters appearing from doors, windows, corners, and playing inside the audience. We are invited inside a feminist theatrical ritual, that evolves in the form of a crescendo; vibrating in synchronicity with a shamanic and electrifying musical score.

Eight Women bewitched by the moon, their accomplice, will slowly reveal their multiple faces. A Joan of Arc fighting her imaginary demons, (Rolline Laporte/Nathalie Valiquette), a futuristic astronaut-gogo dancer (Miriam Ginestier), a Queen imprisoned in her own jail-dress (Denise Boulanger), a 1970’s model transforming into a werewolf (Nathalie Claude), a couragous wartime nurse on the verge of a nervous breakdown (Dominique Leduc), a Moulin-Rouge performer flirting with death, absinthe and drag (Antonija Livingstone), a servant coming directly from a 17th century Dutch painting, pulling the threads of space and time (Lin Snelling/Deborah Dunn) and a tearful Medieval creature that is dangerously breaking free (Suzanne Lemoine).

Creator and Director: Nathalie Claude

Created in collaboration with the Creator/Performers: Denise Boulanger, Nathalie Claude, Miriam Ginestier, Rolline Laporte, Dominique Leduc, Suzanne Lemoine, Antonija Livingstone and Lin Snelling. And for 2001 : Nathalie Valiquette and Deborah Dunn.

Music: SUNNA/Stéphane Claude

Costumes: Judy Jonker

Lights, Production and technical direction: Manon Choinière

This show was performed in Montreal at first in a convent (1999), then in an historic chapel (2001).