TOUT COMME ELLE / JUST LIKE HER

created by Siminovitch Prize-winning Quebec director Brigitte Haentjens and featuring a diverse cast of 50 women. Tout Comme Elle/Just Like Her combines song and music with a rich and poetic text to explore the difficult, painful, yet necessary separation of daughter and mother a separation that arises in anguish and rebellion but is underpinned by tenderness.

Through different scenes, we hear the voice of a daughter speak: of the relationship with the mother, of feeling unloved in her differences from the mother, of giving birth herself to a daughter, and of observing her own teenage daughter, who is… just like her. A universal pattern emerges, a great wheel turns. Yet individual humanity, of both mother and of daughter, is always present.

Tout Comme Elle/Just Like Her is a poignant and daring piece of theatre about the inevitability of loss and the eternal nature of love.
 

Written by Louise Dupré, Translated by Erín Moure
Directed by Brigitte Haentjens, Associate Artist
Costume Design by YSO
Lighting Design by Andrea Lundy
Music for the Original Song Composed by Émilie Laforest
Music Direction by Lily Ling
Movement Coached by Annie Berthiaume
Stage Managed by Kate Porter
Assistant Stage Managed by Kristin McCollum
Original Music Composed by Bernard Falaise
Sound Co-ordinated by Michael Laird
Wardrobe by Erika Connor
Assistant Production Manager sandra Henderson
Original Sound Design Bernard Grenon
Assistant Costume Designer Julie Charland
Assistant Lighting Designer David DeGrow

Featuring: Akosua Amo Adem, Anne Anglin, Danielle Ayow, Shauna Bradley, Jenni Burke, Laura Burns, Marjorie Chan, Raven Dauda, Laura de Carteret, Rosemary Dunsmore, Lili Francks, Allegra Fulton, Cara Gee, Barbara Gordon, Kyra Harper, Fiona Highet, Maggie Huculak, Chala Hunter, Tanja Jacobs, Falen Johnson, Stephanie Jung, Molly Kidder, Joan M Kivanda, Jani Lauzon, Diana Leblanc, Janet Lo, Keira Loughran, Jane Luk, Amber Mills, Jessica Moss, Tara Nicodemo, Beatriz Pizano, Michelle Polak, Fiona Reid, Liisa Repo-Martell, Karen Robinson, Anusree Roy, Zorana Sadiq, Pamela Sinha, Rubena Sinha, Michelle St. John, Meghan Swaby, Mayahuel Tecozautla, Severn Thompson, Kristen Thomson, Miroki Tong, Theresa Tova, Maria Vacratsis, Dharini Woollcombe, Jean Yoon.

Tout Comme Elle took place on
13 - 18 June 2011 Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East

In collaboration with Sibyllines Produced in association with Luminato

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Photos by ANTHONY COHEN & MICHAEL COOPER

Filiming by REM

Generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council's Arts Investment Fund

 Cast (in alphabetical order)

Akosua Amo Adem, Anne Anglin, Danielle Ayow, Shauna Bradley, Jenni Burke, Laura Burns, Marjorie Chan, Raven Dauda, Laura de Carteret,
Rosemary Dunsmore, Lili Francks, Allegra Fulton, Cara Gee, Barbara Gordon, Kyra Harper, Fiona Highet, Maggie Huculak, Chala Hunter, Tanja Jacobs, Falen Johnson, Stephanie Jung, Molly Kidder, Joan M Kivanda, Jani Lauzon, Diana Leblanc, Janet Lo, Keira Loughran, Jane Luk, Amber Mills, Jessica Moss, Tara Nicodemo, Beatriz Pizano, Michelle Polak, Fiona Reid, Liisa Repo-Martell, Karen Robinson, Anusree Roy, Zorana Sadiq, Pamela Sinha, Rubena Sinha, Michelle St. John, Meghan Swaby, Mayahuel Tecozautla, Severn Thompson, Kristen Thomson,
Miroki Tong, Theresa Tova, Maria Vacratsis, Dharini Woollcombe, Jean Yoon

Crew:
Written by Louise Dupre, Translated by Erin Moure, Directed by Brigitte Haentjens, Costume Design by Yso, Lighting Design by Andrea Lundy, Music Composed by Émilie Laforest, Music Direction by Lily Ling, Assistant Costume Designer Julie Charland, Movement Coached by Annie Berthiaume,(no picture),  Stage Managed by Kate Porter, Assistant Stage Managed by Kristin McCollum, Sound Design by Bernard Falaise, Sound Co-ordinated by Michael Laird, Wardrobe by Erika Connor, Assistant Production Manager sandra Henderson, Assistant Sound Designer Bernard Grenon, Assistant Lighting Designer David DeGrow (no photo).

"Tout comme elle is, first and foremost, a friendship.
It is a meeting with Louise Dupré, making personal and artistic connections.
It is the desire to put the female imagination on stage, the imagination passed down from mother to daughter, from one generation to the next.
Tout comme elle, here in Toronto, is also the story of connection, collaboration and friendship with Necessary Angel Theatre Company.
It is the pleasure to produce Louise's text in another language, to have new bodies bring it to life.
It is hearing her words resonate, in English, on a new stage/in a new sky/in a new voice."

- Brigitte Haentjens, Director
Tout Comme Elle

Workshop Presentation

May 10 - 18, 2010
Young Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto

Photos from the Workshop taken by Christine Lim

17- 28 January 2006 (extended until 11 February 2006) l'Usine C Montreal 31 October - 4 November 2006 NAC Ottawa 15 - 17 May 2006 Carrefour international de théâtre Québec

The reviews are in:

Click HERE for the Toronto Star

Click HERE for the TORONTOIST

Click HERE for the Globe and Mail

Click HERE for the Toronto SUN

Click HERE for Mooney on Theatre

Click HERE for the National Post

Click HERE to listen to Lyn Slotkin

On previous incarnations of Tout Comme Elle;

“In Tout comme elle, a masterful oratorio for 50 voices, Brigitte Haentjens expands the limits of her art. . . . She has staged a choral work in which hatred and tenderness are experienced and portrayed with larger-than-life authenticity. . . . This is, without a doubt, a momentous artistic event.” – Christian Saint-Pierre, Voir

“The effect is breathtaking . . . This is Haentjens at her best, her anxious inquiry coupled with an incomparable sense of staging.”– Hervé Guay, Le Devoir

“Brigitte Haentjens’ direction is a jewel of intelligence, concentration and expressive range.” – Jean St Hilaire, Le Soleil

“For once, I’ll limit my comments to urging you not to miss this unique theatre experience. We won’t soon see another production of such impressive scope.” – Ève Dumas, La Presse