‘there was a unicorn in the room the whole time’ – a chat with director Lydie Dubuisson
By Misha Nye
October 7, 2024
In July 2020, director and dramaturg Lydie Dubuisson was staging shows in the park, using hula hoops as social distancing tools, intent on keeping community theatre alive. On one of these hazy days, Black Theatre Workshop gave her a call. It couldn’t have come at a better time. After all, for the Black community, 2020 was more than just the pandemic. ‘Very quickly,’ Lydie tells me, ‘it became a whole movement of ‘if you do not take your space now…’
When it comes to ‘taking your space’, Black Theatre Workshop is a fine example. For over half a century, BTW has challenged the white status quo of theatre by placing Black artists on the stage. Quite simply, Lydie tells me that ‘it was one of the first places where I discovered that Black folks and theatre co-existed’. I met Lydie for a chat at the BTW offices. After working there for several years, her return sparks scenes of joy.
Lydie Dubuisson (left) and Misha Nye (right).
‘I saw Black bodies crossing the stage like it was the most normal thing in the world’
This fall, Lydie returns to BTW to direct Taking Care of Maman, and it is harder to imagine a show better placed to address the mesh of Covid, community and the Black experience. With Lydie on stage, it feels like serendipity.
‘Eli’s maman is having her sadness again and she knows the only one who can help is their neighbour, Madame Jean.’
Written by Djennie Laguerre, Taking Care of Maman explores Eli’s relationship with her neighbour as her mom struggles with her mental health. Set in the pits of the pandemic, it is a two-hander starring Seeara Lindsay and Alexandra Laferrière that delves into ideas of intergenerational support and the need for close community ties.
Seeara Lindsay in Taking Care of Maman.
It is wonderful to see a show like Taking Care of Maman that treats young people with such complexity and compassion. It is clear that this comes from a genuine place of care. Lydie tells a tale from when she worked in the children’s ward of the McGill health centre: a child stands, all alone, whilst her parents and doctor chat far above her head. For Lydie, this is the pandemic in a nutshell: a generation of kids that sensed a storm but were unable to make sense of it.
‘Finally’, Lydie says with relief, ‘finally we are paying attention to the children’. Taking Care of Maman sends a message to the kids, clear as day, that they are seen. What’s more, as a show that will tour throughout schools in the Montréal region, this is a message that will be hand-delivered.
Initially, we went wild for anything pandemic-related—Contagion, The Plague, you name it—but more recently, we have lost our appetite. Maybe we think that ignoring it will help us to move on. But not only does this not work, it is not fair to those who still carry the trauma and are still at risk. Taking Care of Maman is a commitment to working through the pain, to staying with the trouble.
‘It is clear. We need to talk about what happened.’
In spite of the subject matter, Lydie is witty and full of energy: a master of the funny-sad. She tells stories with a wry recognition of how absurd the world is. ‘The next time you go to the hospital, you should ask how the doctor is, not the other way around’, she laughs. A joke, but is it? Lydie is deeply concerned with the burden that healthcare workers were made to shoulder - a burden she has witnessed first hand. The slow violence of Covid has impacts we may only be starting to see. We cannot shy away.
At its core, Taking Care of Maman is about the need for close community ties. Unable to cope, yet fearful of those that could take her away from her mom, Eli turns to a neighbour, and it is here that she finds joy.
Alexandra Laferierre in Taking Care of Maman.
Covid showed us that community is a need, not a luxury. As our world shrank, we relied on those around us for sustenance and support. Community counts for everyone, but for minority groups it can be a matter of life and death. As put by Lydie, ‘when you are isolated, you instinctively recognise yourself in the other’, whether that be locking eyes with an elderly Black woman on the bus, or counting the non-white people in a theatre audience.
Alongside a raging pandemic, the summer of 2020 saw the largest protests in US history following the murder of George Floyd. Like many of us, this made Lydie seriously question the importance of her work. Luckily for us, rather than tap-out, Lydie chose to double-down on her role as an artist.
‘Art has the possibility of breaking a part of your brain and making you realize that there was a unicorn in the room the whole time and you never even realised it.’
Black Theatre Workshop is proof of what art can do when paired with a fierce commitment to community. A pillar of the Black community in Montréal for years, BTW is a lighthouse, either welcoming people in or guiding them on their journey.
Taking Care of Maman is a full-circle moment for Lydie Dubuisson. It promises to be a poignant, thought-provoking evening, and I can’t wait to see it. A Black Theatre Workshop and Roseneath Theatre co-production, you have only 2 chances to see this wonderful show. The 11th and 12th October at Teesri’s Rangshala Studio. Don’t miss out.
Taking Care of Maman
By the Black Theatre Workshop
October 11 & 12, 2024
Teesri Duniya Theatre’s Rangshala Studio