Gros gars
By Mathieu Gosselin
Éditions Somme toute
“Humble in his funniness, funny in his humility, Mathieu Gosselin takes us through the winding paths of his life, which is interspersed with glycemia, failures, poetry and reassessments. A sensitive and baroque work of theatre, Gros gars transforms autofiction into a celebration of the present moment and human plurality. Filled with delicious situations, the work opens an endless dialogue with our world.”
—Peer assessment committee: Isabelle Hubert, Katrine Deniset and Gabriel Léger-Savard
Synopsis
Gros gars is author and actor Mathieu Gosselin’s alter ego, a facet of his personality that frequently appears to keep him from moving forward. Born “deep and delicious, double cream, triple chocolate,” Gros gars regularly procrastinates, dizzied by his fears and daily failures. In fact, procrastination is a way of life for him. But his inconsistency also leads to happy detours that sometimes end up being productive and creative.
On a stage littered with seemingly decrepit technological artifacts straight out of the 1980s and 1990s, Mathieu invites us into his world and reveals himself gently through his poetry. Amongst an old CD player, a pile of poems written in high school and CÉGEP that he reads randomly and a plethora of black rock band t-shirts, he rummages through relics of the past with humour and humility. He worries about a bunch of things, including the death of fiction. He wonders about his own potential and what he chooses to do with it.
Onstage, this theatrical object combines rowdy musical performances with rap influences, hilarious stand-up routines and a poetry recital. One question remains: will Mathieu, assisted by Gros gars, manage to finish the show?
Biography
Mathieu Gosselin is a Montréal-based actor and writer originally from Saint-Athanase, Quebec. He has acted in plays such as J’aime Hydro, Caligula_remix, by Marc Beaupré, and Des souris et des hommes, by Vincent-Guillaume Otis. On television, he has been in Série noire, C’est comme ça que je t’aime and M’entends-tu? He led the writing of the 2019 and 2021 Scriptarium for Le Clou theatre. He co-wrote Ils étaient quatre with Mani Soleymanlou (L’instant même, 2015). In 2020, he received the Louise La Haye prize for co-writing Éclats et autres libertés.
Photo: David Ospina
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