THE PROBLEM WITH PINK
The next show on the MTYP Mainstage is a dynamic dance piece about friendship, identity, and self-affirmation. The Problem with Pink leaps onto the Mainstage from February 16-24.
Playing happily on their private pink carpet, each day is full of fun for friends Alix, Sasha, Lou and Noa. From afar, the outside world seeps into their games. A plane flies overhead? They grow long, long wings. It starts raining? No problem: they splash in the puddles, instantly waterproof. But everything changes when they get terrible news from the outside: the color pink is for girls. Suddenly, the perception of others becomes a major preoccupation, muddling their imaginations in the process. Fear of judgment and mistrust take hold. If pink is only for girls, how will this change the way they live and play together?
We asked creator and playwright Erika Tremblay-Roy about The Problem with Pink.
What was the inspiration for The Problem With Pink? Did something specific happen in your life, or was it an idea that you had always wanted to explore?
I’m very interested in the question of gender identity. Especially since becoming a mother, I’ve been wondering a lot about what we impose on ourselves (or what society imposes on us!) depending on whether we identify as a boy or a girl. At the outset, I had every intention of getting to the heart of this question, but as I look at the show that has emerged, I realize that it’s almost a secondary issue. Of course, this theme of boys and girls is omnipresent. But I have the impression that, in the end, it’s more the questions of how others look at who you are, or the expectations you have of what the other should or shouldn’t be, or the fear of not fitting in with what you imagine you should be, that are the real driving forces behind this show.
How would you describe this piece to your friends? (One thing I’m specifically interested in is if you call it a hybrid of dance and theatre OR something entirely different?)
I’d say it’s a dance-theater show, full of energy and fantasy
What do you think are the consequences of toxic masculinity and gender stereotypes on our society? Are there specific ways in which we can fight against these things?
I try to fight the certainties that lock us into the idea that we have to be like this or like that to be “just right,” to fit in with expectations. I place great value on integrity, on taking responsibility for one’s desires, choices, and ideas. Especially when I work with children, I always try to help them trust their intelligence, their ability to think. Because I believe that it’s by developing our self-esteem that we develop the weapons to free ourselves from stereotypes and other toxic shackles!
The show is beautiful. Can you talk a bit about the design team you worked with and how they came up with the look of the show?
Thank you! The scenography was imagined by Julia Morlot, a French visual artist with a passion for textiles. First she found the right carpet – hyper pink – then we had rope of the same color made, with which she modeled the reliefs of this strange, vibrant universe. This installation is magnified by the lighting of Quebec lighting designer Andréanne Deschênes, who works with chiaroscuro with such subtlety. In the same space, she succeeds in making us feel the path the characters take, a journey between the joy of having fun with friends and the subterranean labyrinths where our innermost fears are buried.
The Problem with Pink runs on the MTYP Mainstage from February 16-24. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the Box Office at 204-942-8898.
