© Ève Nadeau
Perhaps the word “lesbian” written somewhere would be enough?
"L'Amour Sorcier" is the name of the last lesbian bar in Quebec City. Frequented from 1992 to 2007, this place is now a myth for many lesbian and queer women in the national capital. When trying to learn more about it, it is virtually impossible to obtain information. Several lesbian bars have existed in Quebec City, and it is the same story that repeats itself: these spaces disappear and the history of lesbian and queer people is erased. Having decided to join forces to create a theater project, Gabrielle, Myriam, and Clara quickly questioned the potential of their shared desire. Lesbian bars don't appear by magic, just because one person imagined them, but what if they found a way to channel the energy of their shared fantasies?
Perhaps the word “lesbian” written somewhere would be enough? is a docu-fiction work in which the protagonists twist reality, creating semi-fictional scenarios in the hope that they will bring about lasting change in their city.
For nearly a year, Gabrielle, Myriam, and Clara have been writing about their desires, questioning the absence of lesbian-queer spaces in their city and in their daily lives, and organizing monthly lesbian-queer parties. Following an initial writing phase, presented at the Jamais Lu Québec festival in the winter of 2024, they will travel to La Balsamine to continue their documentary project. They see this residency as an opportunity to engage with the international community and thus find new answers and offer a plurality of voices to their project.
Credits
Writing and performance Gabrielle Morin, Myriam Lenfesty, Clara Vecchio
Gabrielle Morin, Myriam Lenfesty, Clara Vecchio
A master's student in literary studies at Laval University, Gabrielle Morin is writing a thesis on the legitimization of female subjectivities in Gabrielle Roy's reporting. She is interested in the literary practices of women and queer people, intimate genres, and literary journalism. In the winter of 2023, she received a Première Ovation mentoring grant for her project on the memory of lesbian bars in Quebec City. Her writing has appeared in several magazines, including Le Sabord, Françoise Stéréo, and Le Pied.
A 2020 graduate of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Québec, Myriam Lenfesty is an actress and visual artist. Since graduating, she has collaborated on various creative projects that have allowed her to deepen her practice and highlight her great versatility as a performer. She is passionate about physical work and approaches her craft with poetry and rigor. In 2023, Myriam will be part of the cast of Odile Gagné-Roy's ALBANE and Pierre-Olivier Roussel's Les Fabuleuses, both presented at Premier Acte. That same year, she will appear in Dominique Sacy's rap musical La République Hip-Hop du Bas-Canada, in which she plays a revolutionary rapper. She is currently touring with Nuages en pantalon's new youth show, a vibrant monologue directed by Olivier Normand.
Clara Vecchio is a graduate of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Québec. As a queer and neurodivergent artist, her mission is to use theater as a tool for raising public awareness. In 2018, she directed Fabrice Melquiot's play Kids in Sarajevo, in co-production with the Sarajevo Youth Theater. In 2019, she presented her creation La dyslexie c’est dure à écrire pour une dyslexique (Dyslexia is hard to write for a dyslexic) at the Fringe Festival. In 2023, she presented Chip show: l’enquête croustillante (Chip show: the crunchy investigation), a co-creation presented at the Théâtre de La Bordée. In the same year, she played Fred in Les Fabuleuses, a play by Pierre-Olivier Roussel presented at the Théâtre Premier Acte. She is the author of the youth play Pissenlit, presented by Théâtre en Quartier, and will be part of the cast of L'Arrière Scène's next show in 2024.