Traces d’Étoiles: A play Worth 5 Stars
The Theatre du Rideau Vert is finishing its season strong with Traces d’Étoiles, written by Cindy Lou Johnson, translated by Maryse Warda, and adapted to the scene by Pierre Bernard. The piece follows a runaway bride, Rosannah, who ends up in Alaska, in Henry’s home, after driving until her gas stops. There, she collapses in his living room from hypothermia, and thus ensues a tumultuous few days when he nurses her back to life.
As she comes around, the complexity of human beings starts showing. He tries to accommodate her, but he’s aloof since he doesn’t like the company, being a solitary guy who only interacts with society when he works on the brig for 6 weeks at a time. She thinks that his help is a ploy to take her independence away, as she is being spoon-fed and treated like a patient more than a woman. However, under this façade, they both are torn souls who have been tried by life. She has been forgotten by her father who has Alzheimer’s and suffers from bouts of hallucinations—one that made her drive all the way to Alaska—while he is crushed by the guilt of having lost his daughter in a tragic circumstance.
This play will bring you all kinds of tears, but for one hour and a half you get a spectacle like no other. The emotions the actors feel resonate through the room. They deliver a great performance as they naturally mix Quebec French with the English slurs that make it feel very modern and three-dimensional. The adaptation makes the play feel like it could be set in Northern Quebec instead of Alaska.
Nonetheless, what really makes this play worthy is the theme of connection. Rosannah and Henry’s connection helps them heal their traumas. They fight, they scream, they talk, they kiss just to feel. At the beginning of the play, they are two lost people, divided between society’s pressure and the need to be alone. Their connection allows them to realize that who they are matters more than how others see them, then what society dictates for them. A great example of this is when he puts her luxurious wedding shoes in the oven and burns them. He admits later of doing this on purpose, but the symbol of setting fire to standards and just being who they are is a heartwarming message that people often forget.
The setting also adds to the theme by showing how complex humans are yet how little they need. Henry lives in a room with a bed, some kitchen appliances, a table, and some chairs. He does not need more to survive, but he needs Rosannah to live. He needs her touch and her blabber to feel like he is doing something. Rosannah runs away from an overly complicated life; she gives up her overly done wedding dress for some simple lumberjack clothes, showing how with human touch, not more is needed to live. Memories are what makes us human, not things. Which parallels with the title since we cannot touch stars or hold them, but they are there, and they will light our path, just like memories.
