Two men and two women hesitantly enter a bare stage. Then the games begin. It rapidly becomes Salvador Dalí meets the Three Stooges.
Maxime Genois, Jonathan Lachlan Stewart, Debbie Lynch-White, and Alice Moreault explore the meaning of this stark stage. They gradually involve the audience in their search for truth. The stage slowly transforms into a universe with infinite possibilities.
At times, the agile group asks questions. The action becomes a combination of The Play That Goes Wrong and a Socratic dialogue. The end of the play is determined by the audience.
This play is unusual in that it was written backward. Alix Dufresne and Étienne Lepage took hours of improvisation by Maxime Genois, Jonathan Lachlan Stewart, Debbie Lynch-White, and Alice Moreault to create a final version. Yet, within this framework, interaction with the audience creates infinite variations.
At times hilarious, other times thought-provoking, Malaise dans la Civilisation tests the limits of both stage and social conventions. The production is presented in English and French on alternate days. If you enjoy surrealism and slapstick humor, you will have fun.