Violence, Speech, and Reality: The Case ofCinq Visages pour Camille Brunelle

This article focuses on the connection between violence, obscenity, language, and character in contemporary Quebec theatre and how it might help us redefine the tension between theatre and reality, questioning anew oppositions such as artifice/authenticity or theatricality/performativity. Using Guillaume Corbeil’s Cinq visages pour Camille Brunelle, this article proposes that even if contemporary playwrights use a resemblance with reality (resemblance of language, discourse, ideas, or characters), the ‘stage’ should not try to refer to the ‘real world.’ I argue that the question of reality and post-reality is in need of a new definition. Theatre could be redefined as a new space, acting as a mediator between the real and the fictional, making use of both at the same time. Recent plays in Quebec have seen a decrease in physical violence in favour of violent speech, and this undoes the binary that associates the real with action and violence and speech with artifice. When characters use violent speech, they are perpetually caught between transparency and opacity, authenticity and artifice.