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Alternative July 3rd re-enactment set to expose Champlain's racist side

Anonyme, Miércoles, Junio 25, 2008 - 12:14
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More controversy for Quebec's 400e

Alternative July 3rd re-enactment set to expose
Samuel de Champlain's dirty little secret!

Just two years before "founding" Quebec City, the man of the hour, Samuel de Champlain alongside Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt participated in what has been called "Canada's first play", Marc Lescarbot's 1606 "Theatre of Neptune in New France". Embarassingly for all Quebecers and Canadians, it was a redface show that denigrated First Nations cultures. It set the tone for 400 years of colonization, destruction of aboriginal culture and languages, and abuse. Harper's recent apology confirms a devastating history of cultural genocide.

In a profound contradiction, on July 3rd Quebec City will be celebrating 400 years of its founding with symbols of oppression against the First Nations: a military parade and a historical "re-enactment" narrated by none other than Samuel de Champlain.

Now a different type of Champlain "re-enactment" is being offered: Sinking Neptune. The controversial theatre production is coming to Quebec to examine the contradictions of the 400e "celebrations" while exposing Champlain's role in the racist "Theatre of Neptune in New France". Montreal's Optative Theatrical Laboratories infamously challenged the play's 400th anniversary on November 14th, 2006 in Nova Scotia, causing a major uproar about the roots of Canadian theatre. The performance has been updated for Quebec's 400e, and offers a peek at Champlain's darker side.

Sinking Neptune is a bilingual performance that deconstructs Lescarbot's play using multi-media, juxtaposition, and verbatim materials taken from real life. Sinking Neptune aims to expose historical racism against First Nation Peoples and calls into question predominant Eurocentric cultural authority. All shows are pay-what-you-can, and a Question and Answer Period will follow each performance.

Montreal: June 27th at 8:00pm & June 28th at 11:00pm.
Maison de L'amitie. 120 duluth east.

Quebec City: July 3rd, 7:30 pm.
L'Agitée. 251 rue Dorchester. www.agitee.org/

Media enquiries: 514-842-1467
Online: www.optative.net/neptune

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