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Kris Rothstein's Blog

The Invisible

Kris Rothstein

The Invisible, a one-woman spectacle written and performed by Marie Brassard. Brassard has done quite a lot of work with legendary Canadian theatre creator Robert Lepage and perhaps that's where her reputation and following comes from.

The Invisible is a meditation on the line between spirit and body, the interplay between life and death. Her specific inspiration is the story of JT LeRoy, the cult author whose existence was revealed as a hoax a few years ago. What happened to that character JT LeRoy, she wonders, who had a life of his own outside a confused girl in drag? For Brassard, creating art is like being born and dying at the same time. It's an emotional, messy process and for her, fictional characters become part of the spirit world, their conception turning them from spirit into matter. These ideas are communicated as she addresses the audience from a black stage with bright naked lights and a huge mirror to create dreamy effects, sometimes walking around, lying down or writhing.

The results were mixed. At times the show seemed pretentious and the content was slim and recycled over and over. If The Invisible had been shorter or incorporated a few more ideas it might have been really mesmerizing.

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