CAMILLE An immersive and multi-sensational show beyond sight

What story does a stage tell if it is not seen but experienced? What messages do gestures convey when they are not seen but felt?

Camille: un rendez-vous au-del du visuel is an immersive, interdisciplinary piece that gives no visual input to its audience. Audience members are guided by performers throughout the immense set, exploring the story, which talks about the loss of friendship.

“This project was born from a need to create a show that would be accessible to both audiences who have their sense of vision as well as to people who live with a visual impairment.”

“This idea came to me because I myself have a visual impairment, Stargardt’s disease.” Audrey-Anne Bouchard – Creator

After Camille’s departure, Pierre tries to deal with the reality of her absence. Through a series of textures, movements and sounds, the audience accompanies the protagonist of the story, exploring both realistic and abstract scenes. These scenes shed light on Pierre’s emotions and his path as he is faced with the challenge of creating ties with new people.

“The show is interactive : People [audiences] connect with their inner-dialogue, we connect with them through touch.”

Audrey-Anne Bouchard – Creator
This unique piece, specifically designed for people living with visual impairments, offers a new sensorial experience through dance and theatre. The small capacity of 6 audience members welcomed to each show allows the performers the space to create a tangible and intimate experience for the audience. Performers come in contact with the audience through touch, exploring an entirely different way of connecting with them.
[The experience] “made me think of …being united, we explore together.” Jocelyne – Spectator living with visual impairment– 1st phase of creation.

The piece is accessible in its entirety to people living with visual impairments as well as people living with the sense of vision. Spectators with limited mobility are also welcome. Note that spectators with vision or partial sight must wear a blindfold for the entirety of the performance

Audrey-Anne Bouchard is an interdisciplinary artist that works in dance and theatre both in Montr al and internationally. She takes from her own visual impairment to reflect on inclusive practices and to develop this new artistic form. She brings sensorial exploration in dance from her time pursuing her masters (Nice/Brussels) to her development in stage direction. Since 2015, she has been a part-time professor at Concordia University, and a mentor in the production faculty of the National Theatre School of Canada

This unique piece is a collective creation developed by Audrey-Anne Bouchard in collaboration with Joseph Brown, Marijoe Foucher, Laurence Gagnon Lefebvre, Laurie-Anne Langis and Marc-Andr Lapointe.

Choreographer and dancer, Laurie-Anne Langis, who is also a massage therapist worked on integrating human touch to the choreography of the piece. Drawing from her expertise of dance and theatre, performer Marijoe Foucher collaborated on the vocabulary of movement, Joining Audrey-Anne Bouchard as co-author of the text, Actor and author Marc-Andr Lapointe also plays the lead role of Pierre. Set designer Laurence Gagnon Lefebvre and Sound Designer Joseph Browne took on the enormous task of conceptualizing the physical and auditory environments of the show, while factoring in that the set would be utilitarian in nature, not to be seen. Actors Sarah Leblanc-Gosselin, Olivier Rousseau and Gueni vre Sandr join the team for the final product of the show.