Event Details
Friday & Saturday, March 19-20
Direct from Quebec City…
L’ORCHESTRE D’HOMMES-ORCHESTRES
Performs the Music of TOM WAITS
Co-presented with the artists as part of the Free Fall Festival (presented by the Theatre Centre in partnership with Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage)
Doors 7pm, concert 8pm
Tickets $20 advance at TicketWeb — BUY NOW!
At the door: $24 regular, $18 MG member + Free Fall pass holders
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vqnD-h8Tvs&feature=related
Armed with the colourful repertoire of uncategorizable American music icon Tom Waits, Quebec City’s L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres offer an event that is more carnival than concert. This bustling orchestra performs the music of Tom Waits using nearly 100 objects and invented instruments on stage, which they hammer and caress in madcap scenes of unbridled energy. In this powerful tribute to the world of Waits, the performers remain faithful to the spirit of his work, but also turn it into a playing field for viewers. Mixing styles and adapting the arrangements, these four frenzied multi-instrumentalists perform in front of each other and over each other, trading instruments and vocals, putting their fingers between the strings, spokes in their wheels, ropes round their necks…
L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres
Bruno Bouchard — voice, homme-orchestre, guitar, suitcase, spaghetti, violin
Jasmin Cloutier — voice, guitar, banjo, megaphone, boots
Simon Drouin — voice, harmonica, wood saw, cisors, boxing gloves
Simon Elmaleh — voice, electric bass, hammers, baby cradle
with guests:
The New Cackle Sisters (Gabrielle Bouthiller + Danya Ortman) — voices, tea pots, handkerchiefs.
In 2002, when they founded L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres in Quebec City, the group’s members had no idea they were preparing a veritable building site for the performing arts: music, performance, street theatre, urban happenings. Originally, L’OHO was a music ensemble, although its members worked in other disciplines as well. But over the course of various projects, which demonstrated how rich and innovative these collaborations could be, the group gradually evolved into a makeshift interdisciplinary workshop.
Gravitating around the figure of the homme-orchestre (“one-man band” or “jack-of-all trades”), the group tried its hand at just about everything, without the required knowledge or expertise. It was therefore necessary to find offbeat solutions, to reinvent virtuosity in other ways. What resulted was a much-needed reconciliation between today’s art and popular culture. L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres also takes an oblique look at the notions of performance and the presence of the actor; its raw productions create disarming imbalances and direct, unassuming connections with the audience. Most important, each performance is an event that will never happen again!
“ …water jugs, spaghetti, wooden boxes: in fact, everything you can imagine turns into a musical instrument in this finely tuned fairground. The sounds are spellbinding, but the on-stage antics take things to another level: with the friendly feel of a circus, the OHO put on a show mid-way between performance and slapstick, in which each breach of the rules is an excuse to party.” —Voir Quebec City (2008)
“For all lovers of Tom Waits, a great, great pleasure” — El Noticiero, Logrono Spain (2009)
