Profound, poetic, and deliciously quirky, this is a meta-experiment with contrasting feminist visions. From its outermost shell—a volley of letters—to its innermost core—a plot to destroy The Machine—the play's true target is tokenism.
La Scena : "The actresses know how to adapt their acting to make the emotion shine through a screen. The various animations also add rhythm and hold the viewer's attention. ...It's a success for Talisman's first digital experience."—Nancie Boulay, 2020‑12‑14.
Text / Texte : Hoda Adra and Kalale Dalton-Lutale;
Dramaturg / Dramaturge : Josianne Dulong-Savignac;
Director / Mise en scène : Sophie Gee;
Choreography / Chorégraphie : Claudia Chan Tak.
Profound, poetic, and deliciously quirky, this is a meta-experiment with contrasting feminist visions. From its outermost shell—a volley of letters—to its innermost core—a plot to destroy The Machine—the play's true target is tokenism.
Water : Chadia Kikondjo;
Emma : Aida Sabra;
Tamara : Lesly Velazquez;
Beth : Emilee Veluz;
Habibi's voice : France Rolland.
Set / Décor : Lyne Paquette;
Costumes / Costume : Sophie El Assaad;
Lighting / Éclairage : Leticia Hamaoui;
Video / Vidéo : Amelia Scott;
Sound / Son : Maria Elena Stoodley;
Production Manager / Gestionnaire de production : Emmanuelle Brousseau;
Stage Manager / Régisseur : Alessandra Tom;
Technical director / Directrice technique : Sophie Bergeron;
Assistant Designer / Assistance concepteur : Zoé Roux.
A Talisman Theatre Equity Coop Production with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage through IPOLC.
MonTheatre : "Habibi's Angels: Commission Impossible highlights the fact that it is still difficult for a newcomer to integrate even though visible minority artists have become fashionable. While the play evokes the Law on State Secularism (Law 21), it does not claim to be a pamphleteer. It is just a tragicomic fable, a bit pungent, in which many female spectators and, why not, some male spectators will recognize themselves."—Nathalie de Han, 2020‑12‑04.
La Scena : "The actresses know how to adapt their acting to make the emotion shine through a screen. The various animations also add rhythm and hold the viewer's attention. ...It's a success for this first digital experience signed Talisman Theatre." —Nancie Boulay, 2020‑12‑14.
JEU Revue de théâtre : "...Sophie Gee's staging is inventive despite the social distancing, the four performers—to which are added Chadia Kikondjo, Aida Sabra, and France Rolland (Habibi's voice)—, frankly energetic, the scenography, simple and effective, the choreography by Claudia Chan Tak, quality, the use of video, very welcome, and the costumes by Sophie El Assaad, delirious. Their fun mix of multicultural motifs fused with a comic book aesthetic in a 'superhero Power Rangers' style is worth mentioning."—Mario Cloutier, 2020‑12‑01.
En Toutes Lettres : "In a society where a Tokenist Quebec government—making symbolic efforts to include minority groups in order to escape accusations of discrimination—refuses to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism, Habibi sheds a refreshing light."—Mario Cloutier, 2020‑12‑01.
CKUT Upstage : SOPHIE (Director) : "So here we have the Angels who are—you'll see from the video because I don't think we'll be able to perform it live in front of an audience—but they are a play on women of colour; they have super, super, super bright clothing on, and they are a visible minority, and they've been tasked as these superheroes by this unknown person, Habibi, to make a play, to capitalize on the fact that they are women of colour. ...And, actually, like, the character of Habibi is trying to get trauma porn."—Sarah Dehaies, 2020‑11‑26.
Spirale : "The voice of Hoda, whom I reached by phone on November 20, is joyful ... 'It's a meta-theatrical piece,' she sums up, at last. I immediately realize that, without realizing it, we were actually talking about the play throughout the interview. Because the show comes to ask the same question that nourished our exchanges: how to put forward alternative stories about Montreal, without art becoming number painting?"—Sarah-Louise Pelletier-Morin, 2020‑11‑25.
LeDevoir : "Sophie Gee, director of Habibi's Angels (Talisman Theatre), also takes things with perspective. ... 'I think we can all benefit from calming down, from living on a fallow land, from refocusing on processes rather than on their products. Let's use this time in the theatre as an additional residency, which is a great artistic luxury."—Catherine Lalonde, 2020‑11‑21.
