Critique of what did we do to the good Lord? | Pride and prejudices

After Denise Filiatrault went up to the green curtain in 2017, the Quebec adaptation of the comedy What did we do to the good Lord?according to the scenario of the successful film, makes a return to the stage this summer, under the direction of Michel-Maxime Legault, with a distribution partly modified for some roles.

Now here. The question at six million dollars is not “What did we do to the good Lord?” “, But do we really need a new theatrical production adapted to the French film by Philippe de Chauveron and Guy Laurent, who deals with intercultural relations and our ordinary prejudices?

The answer is no, alas. Even reworked up to date, the adaptation of Emmanuel Reichenbach remains a festival of shots (assumed, of course). But she does not add anything to this comedy full of good feelings where we see every piece from the story coming from afar.

Typical couple, atypical children

Alain Bouchard (Rémy Girard) is a Pure Wool Quebecer, from Val-Jalbert, and nostalgic PQ in the time of René Lévesque. His wife (Marie-Ginette Guay who takes up the role played by Micheline Bernard, in 2017) is a loving and open mother, but an unsatisfied wife who will want to get rid of late.

The couple have four daughters, including three married to men of diversity. Their first son -in -law is of Jewish confession (Ariel Ifergan), the second is Muslim (Mehdi Boumalki) and the third was born in Montreal to Korean parents (Nicolas Michon). The patriarch does not have the prerogative of prejudices. We are all someone’s racist. And family encounters are tinged with friction and innuendo between the three son -in -law.

In Christmas Eve, the youngest of girls finally decides to present her boyfriend to her parents. An Ivorian who lives in France and studies in theater. Black, French and actor … which will shake the tolerance of the Bouchard clan. After the intermission, the father of the new boyfriend, Joseph (Widemir Normil), arrives unexpectedly. However, Joseph is the African counterpart of Alain Bouchard: pingre, proud, sectarian and … racist.

Quebecocentrist adaptation

On the formal level, we swim in the shallow waters of the summer theater. The adaptation of Emmanuel Reichenbach multiplies ad nauseam Local references. All the Quebec personalities go there… from Gilles Vigneault to Olivier Primeau, via Pierre Bourgault and Falardeau. Or the third link. The Ivorian actor is entitled to a Joual lesson by his blonde who makes him repeat an extract from a play by Tremblay. As if the Quebec public had to recognize themselves with each replica to follow a comic intrigue…

The staging multiplies the decor changes and the short scenes. In the distribution, it is necessary to underline the excellent performance of Rémy Girard and Marie-Ginette Guay, in the skin of the old couple. In secondary roles, the interpretation is more uneven. Some actors have the annoying tendency to roughly overplay the situation.

If the premise of (better) living together is good, What did we do to the good Lord? trivializes cultural prejudices in a Franco-universalist soup. And makes racism an individual and non -collective issue, a simplistic question where the notions of injustices and social inequalities do not exist.

Of course, this is not a thesis. It remains a comedy. But it is not because we laugh at our flaws that we cannot think a little …

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