Twilight Saga: A Musical Comedy
Brébeuf’s student theatre troupe, L’Épopée, came back strong this year with a fun take on the infamous Twilight saga written by Stephanie Meyers and arranged by the students. The show’s production team arranged the saga as a musical with songs like NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye to Indila’s Dernière Danse and Joji’s A Glimpse Of Us.
The French parody starts out like the movies with Bella moving to Fourchettes—a parody to Forks—as the opening song from Beauty and the Beast (1991) is played by a live band. Then, she meets all the bubbly characters from the novel: Mike, Jessica and Eric. The story moves fast as every scene describes pivotal moments drenched in comedy: Bella meets the Cullens, she and Edward fall in love despite their differences and desires—Edward wants to deprive her of her blood— and the Black Eyed Peas, I mean Laurent, James and Victoria, sniff her out in the beloved baseball scene. James tries to kill Bella and thus the first movie/book ends. However, to the Twilight worshippers in the room’s greatest pleasure, the artists went above and beyond and gave us a satiric take on all the installments in the fantasy franchise. To avoid spoilers, let’s just say the second part is as whimsical, clever and entertaining as the first one no matter if you’re Team Edward, Team Jacob or Team Alice.
The troupe’s interpretation was incredible as they showed how cringely amazing the characters can be, bringing them to live. Each actor was not only brilliant to watch but they were highly versed in songs and choreographies which added the cherry on the cake to this over the top performance. The audience got to live the second hand embarrassment Bella’s love caused and even the characters were self-aware as Jacob points out in what of his best lines: “à quoi ça sert que je t’aime que tu l’aimes et que le public soit assis là pendant une heure et demie?” They were also conscious of how much Charlie is the hot dad we want to know and even how ridiculous Renesme is. The actors excelled even in playing trees.
The hint of humor was also seen through the live band’s musical numbers as they chose the randomest songs to play such as Bella Ciao to introduce the Volturi and Belle from Beauty and the Beast to introduce Bella. The whole production from the lights to the dancing trees were meant as comedic relief and the audience felt it. Their laughter resonated through the room. People were screaming, living through the play as thought we were in Fourchettes.
