Ce qui nous relie, à plusieurs voix (What Connects Us, in Many Voices)

A public bench, a few masks, and puppets rich with history become the starting point for a new creation about what brings us together. With Ce qui nous relie à plusieurs voix, VOX Théâtre invited four emerging Franco-Ontarian artists to draw on the tools and expertise developed by the company to explore their own vision of community.

Guided by Pier Rodier and Marie-Thé Morin, emerging artists Anne Hamel, Sarah Komendat, Dillon Lalonde-Morgan, and Simon-Rys Landry created through improvisation, movement, voice, clowning, masked performance, and puppetry. Around a bench, their characters cross paths, ignore one another, confront one another, and gradually discover the gestures that make connection possible.

This creative laboratory carries artistic memory from one generation to the next while bringing it into the present. Presented to students at École Trille-des-Bois on June 4, 2026, the documented excerpts bear witness to a work still in development, shaped by the meeting of the artists, the history of VOX Théâtre, and a young Francophone audience.

Passing on Tools, Inventing a New Creation

Pier Rodier and Marie-Thé Morin invited the four emerging artists to explore practices that have shaped the journey of VOX Théâtre: physical theatre, mask work, clowning, puppetry, voice, and collective writing.

The masks and puppets, drawn from the company’s collection, already carried their own history. In the hands of Anne Hamel, Sarah Komendat, Dillon Lalonde-Morgan, and Simon-Rys Landry, they became the starting point for new characters and new questions about solitude, indifference, and mutual support.

The goal of transmission was not to reproduce a theatrical form from the past. Rather, it allowed a new generation to take up these tools, transform them, and make them speak to the present.

The emerging artists explore mask work and movement during the creative laboratory, using tools drawn from VOX Théâtre’s collection.

Around the Bench, Connections Take Shape

The creation evolved through improvisation, drawing on bodies, voices, objects, and the relationships between characters. At the centre of the space, a public bench initially welcomed people who crossed paths without truly meeting.

Then the world came alive. Masked pigeons took over the space, an elderly man and woman came to life as puppets, a protest emerged, and collective movement transformed the way the space was inhabited.

Guided by their mentors, the artists revisited the most compelling images, refined the characters, and connected the fragments. Humour and imagination thus became a way of showing how a shared space can move from isolation to connection, sometimes through a glance, a voice, or a gesture extended toward another person.

The work remains in development. The scenes presented here capture the moment when its characters, rhythms, and relationships began to take shape.

The artists bring puppet characters to life through the exploratory process as the world of the creation begins to take shape.

The Work Meets Its First Audience

On June 4, 2026, the excerpts left the rehearsal space to be presented to students at École Trille-des-Bois.

For the artistic team, this encounter was an integral part of the creative process. The attention, reactions, and exchanges of the young audience made it possible to test the rhythm of the scenes, observe how the characters and images were received, and identify the moments when laughter or curiosity spread through the room.

This first sharing of the work helped shape the next stage of its development while creating a dialogue between a new generation of Franco-Ontarian artists and the audience to whom VOX Théâtre dedicates a significant part of its work.

Fragments of Ce qui nous relie à plusieurs voix are presented to students at École Trille-des-Bois on June 4, 2026, giving the team an opportunity to test the work with its first audience.