The Company

Multidisciplinary Live Art Creation

Theatre Junction is a bilingual multidisciplinary live art ensemble  based in Montreal.  Led by its co-artistic directors Mark Lawes and Raphaële Thiriet, the company brings together artists from varied cultural backgrounds and disciplines.  Together they explore themes that are at the intersection of their differences, constructing live performances that are composite forms of our time.  The interconnectivity between manufactured and natural environments, real and virtual worlds, are at the core of the artistic research of the company.  The research and writing of Mark Lawes and Raphaële Thiriet is derived from a system of improvisation and collective collaboration that searches inbetween disciplines for new forms of representation.  This mode of creation is at the 'junction' of contemporary dance, theatre, music, and visual art.

The name Junction reflects the idea of crossroads, of space located at an intersection, of a meeting place, for the arts as well as for identities. The name conveys the space between as a space for possibilities and for creation.

Theatre Junction makes its home in Tiohtiá:ke/Moonyang/Montréal, a traditional and unceded territory, which has long served as the homeland and site of meeting and exchange of Indigenous peoples, in particular the Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) and Omàmiwininì (Algonquin) nations. 

 

Creations

Outside | In

Creation 2024

OUTSIDE | IN, is an innovative hybrid immersive performance that draws inspiration from the panopticon, science fiction, and escape games. This ground-breaking theatrical experience aims to delve deep into the realms of freedom and social control, inviting audiences to question the constructs that shape their lives. Using telepresence technology, the performance can be simultaneously enjoyed online and in two physical spaces, blurring the boundaries between the virtual and the real.

OI is being developed in partnership with the Society of Arts and Technology in Montreal.  Additional production support and residency provided by EMPAC / Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Photo credit - Michael Valiquette/EMPAC

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Michael Valiquette/EMPAC
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Chaosmos

Creation 2021

CHAOSMOS is an immersive and poetic installation. This visual and acoustic cocoon forms a utopian space that originated during a conversation involving Raphaële Thiriet, Mark Lawes and the renowned visual artist and musician Malcolm Mooney, on the necessity of deconstructing power relations inherited through colonization. Inspired by the logic of biodiversity, this inviting curvilinear space welcomes us into the heart of suspended time, creating an organic sensorial experience embracing the ever-evolving complexity of the natural world. The coexistence of movement, songs, interviews, texts, and video-art present multiple points of access to this singular interdisciplinary work.

The creation of this work was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and was supported by the English Language Arts Network funded by the Secretariat for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers.  CHAOSMOS benefitted from a residency at Usine C, Montreal.

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Elan
 

Concord Floral (La Serre Concorde)

By Jordan Tannahill Translated by Olivier Sylvestre Presented by Usine C April 23-25, 2021

Directed by Raphaële Thiriet with 15 adolescents from Montreal's cultural diversity, Theatre Junction’s La Serre Concorde is the French language world premiere of Governor General’s award winning playwright, Jordan Tannahill.  Concord Floral is a million-square foot greenhouse in a suburb of Montreal. Having been abandoned for years, it is seen as a scourge by concerned parents in the nearby neighborhoods. It is also a refuge for neighbourhood teens; a place of their own in which to throw parties, experiment, dream, dare and come of age. Concord Floral is, in part, an adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century allegory, The Decameron, where ten teens seek refuge in an abandoned villa and weather the plague by telling each other stories, to keep each other alive. In this contemporary reinterpretation, ten youth flee to the greenhouse when a plague is visited upon their neighbourhood.

This project benefited from a residency at the Collège Français de Montréal, Théâtre aux Écuries, and the “Artiste à l’école program” of the CSSDM in partnership with the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Highschool.

Concord Floral was first produced in 2014 by Suburban Beast and presented by Why Not theatre at the Theatre Centre (Toronto, ON).  It was written by Jordan Tannahill and developed over a three-year period with Erin Brubacher, Cara Spooner and a group of teenagers from across the Greater Toronto Area.  The original production was created and directed by Erin Brubacher. Cara Spooner, and Jordan Tannahill.  Concord Floral is produced by permission of the Playwright, Translator, and Marquis Literary (Colin Rivers).

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Module 1 – Supersaturated

Module 1 of the Supernova Trilogy explores the acceleration of cultural change related to advances in technology.  Instantaneous communication, social media, and high speed internet have altered consciousness and transformed our relationship to time, each other, and the world.  Inspired by Douglas Coupland’s ‘supersaturated information age’, and underscored by a ready-made pop-art aesthetic, the company of artists surf the wave of a culture transformed by its own speed.

Module 2 – The End of a Dream

Module 2 of the Supernova Trilogy is situated after the high-speed crash of electronic interconnectedness and the implosion of the ‘global village’.  What happens after the collapse of the American Dream? On the edge of a deserted landscape, fragments of a broken love story reawaken dreams of the past.  There is a longing to go back home to the way things were, however that place is no longer what we thought it was, and we are no longer ourselves. Module 2 attempts an autopsy on the heartsick condition of a society that has lost its dreams.

Module 3 – The Last Fall of Wile E Coyote

In Module 3 of the Supernova Trilogy we watch the final fall of Wile E Coyote.  This time, the famous coyote doesn’t get back up and repeat himself, instead he watches his image slowly dissolve under a starry sky.  The last fall of Wile E Coyote is situated somewhere between the image and the shadow.  Onstage a post-rock band sings songs as incantations to summon ancient memories or visions of the future, where animals resemble men.  And on the screen, the performers are trapped and interrogated in a series of “assessments” inciting their fears and paranoia in a “post-truth” world where the camera is the only witness.  And in the space between the stage and the screen, beyond the frame of the camera, there is an unknown territory, vast and infinitely complex, where nature and the cosmos carry on the subtle dance of reality.  The performers act as a chorus in search of a collective reconfiguration of the present moment.

SUPERNOVA TRILOGY – CREATION 2018

“A genre-defying exploration of live and digital disturbances that ask, “if the medium is the message, what does it say?” The future becomes a retrospective in an absorbing probe in search for the possibility of ‘re-enchantment’ in a technological world.”

The last two years Theatre Junction has been working on the development of the he Supernova Trilogy, a multidisciplinary and multi-media work composed of three independent modules.  Metaphorically, the trilogy follows the life cycle of a star.  The explosive impact of new technologies on consciousness and the erosion of the utopian promise of the American Dream, combine to create a future that has yet to be constructed, in which science and imagination collide.  Each module will consist of live performances and satellites, including short films, concerts, and installations.

The Supernova Trilogy had its world premiere in the frame of the Festival des Francophonies en Limousin in Limoges and was subsequently presented by the Festival International des Arts de Bordeaux in October 2018.

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Module 1 – Supersaturated

Module 1 of the Supernova Trilogy explores the acceleration of cultural change related to advances in technology.  Instantaneous communication, social media, and high speed internet have altered consciousness and transformed our relationship to time, each other, and the world.  Inspired by Douglas Coupland’s ‘supersaturated information age’, and underscored by a ready-made pop-art aesthetic, the company of artists surf the wave of a culture transformed by its own speed.

Module 2 – The End of a Dream

Module 2 of the Supernova Trilogy is situated after the high-speed crash of electronic interconnectedness and the implosion of the ‘global village’.  What happens after the collapse of the American Dream? On the edge of a deserted landscape, fragments of a broken love story reawaken dreams of the past.  There is a longing to go back home to the way things were, however that place is no longer what we thought it was, and we are no longer ourselves. Module 2 attempts an autopsy on the heartsick condition of a society that has lost its dreams.

Module 3 – The Last Fall of Wile E Coyote

In Module 3 of the Supernova Trilogy we watch the final fall of Wile E Coyote.  This time, the famous coyote doesn’t get back up and repeat himself, instead he watches his image slowly dissolve under a starry sky.  The last fall of Wile E Coyote is situated somewhere between the image and the shadow.  Onstage a post-rock band sings songs as incantations to summon ancient memories or visions of the future, where animals resemble men.  And on the screen, the performers are trapped and interrogated in a series of “assessments” inciting their fears and paranoia in a “post-truth” world where the camera is the only witness.  And in the space between the stage and the screen, beyond the frame of the camera, there is an unknown territory, vast and infinitely complex, where nature and the cosmos carry on the subtle dance of reality.  The performers act as a chorus in search of a collective reconfiguration of the present moment.

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MODULE 1 - SUPERSATURATED

Module 1 of the Supernova Trilogy explores the acceleration of cultural change related to advances in technology.  Instantaneous communication, social media, and high speed internet have altered consciousness and transformed our relationship to time, each other, and the world.  Inspired by Douglas Coupland’s ‘supersaturated information age’, and underscored by a ready-made pop-art aesthetic, the company of artists surf the wave of a culture transformed by its own speed.


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Module 2 – The End of a Dream

Module 2 of the Supernova Trilogy is situated after the high-speed crash of electronic interconnectedness and the implosion of the ‘global village’.  What happens after the collapse of the American Dream? On the edge of a deserted landscape, fragments of a broken love story reawaken dreams of the past.  There is a longing to go back home to the way things were, however that place is no longer what we thought it was, and we are no longer ourselves.  Module 2 attempts an autopsy on the heartsick condition of a society that has lost its dreams.


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MODULE 3 - THE LAST FALL OF WILE E COYOTE

In Module 3 of the Supernova Trilogy we watch the final fall of Wile E Coyote.  This time, the famous coyote doesn’t get back up and repeat himself, instead he watches his image slowly dissolve under a starry sky.  The last fall of Wile E Coyote is situated somewhere between the image and the shadow.  Onstage a post-rock band sings songs as incantations to summon ancient memories or visions of the future, where animals resemble men.  And on the screen, the performers are trapped and interrogated in a series of “assessments” inciting their fears and paranoia in a “post-truth” world where the camera is the only witness.  And in the space between the stage and the screen, beyond the frame of the camera, there is an unknown territory, vast and infinitely complex, where nature and the cosmos carry on the subtle dance of reality.  The performers act as a chorus in search of a collective reconfiguration of the present moment.


PRESS

“A mediation through dance, music, and in particular body language and movement that transcends the limitations of verbal language.” Brad Simm, Beatroute Magazine
“Supernova Trilogy invites the spectator as an object, subject, and actor of the research, to evaluate his own journey in life.” Natacha Margotteau, Mouvement Magazine
“A primal scream, animal, enraged, nostalgic and despaired. A call to awaken consciousness." Natalie Geilibert, Kulte
“The juxtaposition of the suburban and the solitude…is stunning and moving” Stephen Hunt, Calgary Herald
“Haunting, catastrophic, addicting — this performance covers all bases.”Lifestyle Magazine
“ I very much hope that this group of artists can continue their difficult while not commercial way of theatrical work in the future. I strongly believe that Theatre Junction will soon gain international reputation.”Almut Wagner

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    CONTACT US

    MARK LAWES
    Co-Artistic Director

    Email: mark@theatrejunction.com

    RAPHAELE THIRIET
    Co-Artistic Director

    Email: raphaele@theatrejunction.com

    Address:

    2230 Avenue du Mont-Royal E

    Montréal, QC  H2H 1K4

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    Email: info@theatrejunction.com

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