Victoria, the orderly(ies)

To complement videos around Victoria by Dulcinea Langfelder, the company offers four short texts on themes that deepen our understanding of the piece.

THE ORDERLY

Charles Fariala, who proposed the idea of Victoria to Dulcinea, was himself an orderly. The character was there from the very beginning, but his role has evolved a lot and on several levels.

Indeed, during her years of research, Dulcinea met many beneficiary attendants. She has seen all kinds, from those who do this job just for the salary, to those (and especially those) who did this work out of vocation and love for humanity. It’s a thankless job and extremely frustrating.  The orderly in the show plays on the whole spectrum of an intimate relationship between caregiver and a patient. He is the one who looks at Victoria from the outside – like the audience – and at first sees a poor little lady, until he realizes – like the audience – that Victoria does not see herself as a victim.

Victoria and her orderly are sometimes like an old couple, sometimes brother and sister, father and daughter, mother and son…  and often even a comedy duo.

THE CHARACTER

The orderly is responsible for taking care of Victoria. He is at times the most exasperated of the attendants and, to others, the most benevolent and wonderful.

ORDELIES SINCE 99′

Réal Bossé created the role of Casimir Godzinski and, in doing so, contributed enormously to the creation of the show. During his audition, he improvised the birthday scene, manipulating Victoria as he did with his son. This choreography hasn’t changed much since then!

Éric Gingras became the company’s technical director in 2000. Since Réal couldn’t go on tour, Eric helped prepare the auditions for the role of the orderly… and ended up taking the role himself!  Yan Havel Dubcek is Victoria’s most frequent caregiver.

Erik Lapierre has been working with the company as a technician since 2003. In what has become a tradition with us, he went from behind the scenes to the stage by personifying Andrei Rublev. He played the attendant for the first time during the Zimbabwe tour in April 2009.

Patrick Fleurant took care of Victoria between 2005 and 2007. When his Ivanof Ivano-vitch couldn’t get out the phrase “I’m singing your swan song”, the more he stammered, the more the audience laughed… he managed to stretch this joke longer than all the caregivers in Victoria.

Martin Rouleau played Anton Doubrovski between 2003 and 2005. The meals he made us on tour were a too short of a pleasure… he also left the profession of comedian to open a restaurant.

Yves Simard has played Slobodan Stojkovic over the years and this, from the beginning, a real caregiver on call! He didn’t play often, but every time it was in a new language!

Created in 1999 for the stage, the work is transposed into a film in 2022. During 20 years of international touring, thousands of testimonials from all over have confirmed this; Victoria touches the viewer right in the heart and brings them a new capacity for tolerance.

Synopsis

Victoria, 90 ans, a perdu la mémoire. Elle a perdu sa chatte et le contrôle de sa vie. Victoria, 90, has lost her memory. In her world, time does not exist; memories are as real as the present. A shadow of herself, Victoria is like a stage performer who’s forgotten her role; a kind of puppet, adapting herself to comic, dramatic and poetic situations as they present themselves. The orderly that takes care of her seems at times to be a friend, an adversary, her father, son, brother, lover… while her wheelchair becomes her rocking chair, her prison, her tango partner and even a flying chariot that takes away her last breath.