P.O.R.N. (Portrait of Restless Narcissism)
by Christian Lapointe and Nadia Ross
P.O.R.N. (Portrait of Restless Narcissism) is a stage work conceived, written, directed and performed by Christian Lapointe and Nadia Ross.
Created as an international co-production between STO Union and Carte blanche, the work examines desire, loneliness, image culture and the compulsions of life online. Built around a live split-screen dispositif, the production places two isolated protagonists at their stations like VJs running the show. Through instant messages, images, texts, emoticons, videos and music, they meet online in an intricate choreography of reality and fiction.
As the natural world seems to turn against us, many retreat into digital landscapes. In P.O.R.N., that retreat becomes a trap as much as an escape. Like Narcissus mesmerized by Pandora’s box, the two protagonists move through a world of obsession, projection and unfulfilled desire — a world in which every click reveals who we are becoming: scavengers of the transactional realm of the World Wide Web, caught in a circular pattern of frustration, masturbation, relief, repeat.
Using the structures of both narrative and performative theatre, Lapointe and Ross create a theatrical language shaped by the codes of the web while remaining deeply rooted in the live event. P.O.R.N. is a portrait of obsession and of desires the virtual world cannot satisfy.
The full production was scheduled for 2020, but was cancelled only days before opening and ultimately lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. That abrupt ending was heartbreaking. P.O.R.N. remains an important STO Union work whose artistic force, visual world and collaborators deserve to be documented.
About the production
An international co-production between STO Union (Farrellton, Québec) and Carte blanche (Québec, Québec), with Festival TransAmériques (Montréal, Québec), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin, Germany), Theater der Welt 2020 – Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf, Germany), and BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen, Norway).
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.
The project was part of the culture program related to Canada’s Guest of Honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2020.
Credits
Conceived, written, directed and performed by Christian Lapointe and Nadia Ross
Set design Geneviève Lizotte
Videography Lionel Arnould
Lighting design Steve Lucas
Assistant director and stage manager Emanuelle Kirouac-Sanche
Technical director on tour and sound Gabriel Filiatreault
Technical director Mickaël Tétrault-Ménard
Production and technical assistant Robert Scott
Photography and video David Irvine
Production manager Emilie Martel
Producer and tour manager Shauna Kadyschuk
Carte blanche administrative coordinator Isabelle Tougne
Technical directors (Phase 1 development) Matéo Thébaudeau, Rob Scott
Recognition
Winner of the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre (AQCT)
Québec City Critics’ Awards, 2017–2018 season
“The text by Lapointe and Ross deals with the obsession with desires that even the virtual world cannot satisfy. This deep web dive takes us into the darkest abysses of a humanity in search of happiness. The game of desire and unfulfilled promises becomes a tragedy in which human beings fall into infinite solitude. This powerful text built from web codes and elliptical syntax highlights the impossible communication, all words dispossessed of their meaning.”
« Le texte de Lapointe et Ross porte sur l’obsession des désirs que même le monde virtuel ne peut assouvir. Cette plongée dans le deep Web nous entraîne dans les abysses les plus sombres d’une humanité en quête de bonheur. Le jeu du désir et des promesses non tenues devient une tragédie où les humains s’abîment dans une solitude infinie. Ce texte percutant construit à partir des codes du Web et d’une syntaxe elliptique souligne l’impossible communication, tous les mots dépossédés de leur sens. »
Selected responses
“It is the flood of images, information, music and videos that becomes the raw material for the dramatic tension. The characters don’t communicate in a direct way, but only via familiar online applications, like Messenger… The question asked is relevant: in a culture of image and appearance, in the era of multiple hook-ups and the search for immediate pleasure, can theatre and art resist the temptation of the pornographic?”
— Nelly Desmarais, Spirale, Québec, March 26, 2018
“After this presentation on the torpor of the senses, when the adrenaline falls and the dopamine is missing, the duet leaves the stage just as if we switched off our computer. They do not return for a curtain call, needless to say. They exist only in the deep web where the tools of our dislocation also hide. A powerful interrogation into the side effects of the ‘pornographisation’ of the world.”
— Alain-Martin Richard, JEU, February 26, 2018
Development and presentation history
Workshop presentations
- Festival mois multi, Recto-Verso / Musée de la civilisation — Québec, Québec — February 23, 2018
- La Chapelle — Montréal, Québec — March 9–10, 2018
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Ville de Québec.
Production photos by David Irvine.
Promotional video by Lionel Arnould.