Vous êtes animal

In today's media spotlight, the deconstruction of Darwin's theory.

The year is 2022. Charles Darwin publishes his groundbreaking essay On the Origin of Species, arousing the ire of much of the scientific community, drawing the wrath of protesters of all political persuasions and putting his own safety at stake. A year later, his book was adapted into a musical and performed all over the world, from Broadway to the West End.

A fictitious Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard traces the course of this affair and, through numerous interviews, sheds light on what would have led Charles Darwin to the heart of a scandal. At a time when faith in science is wavering, could it be dangerous for a scientist to confront our conception of life so head-on? Or would he simply be dismissed out of hand?

After his creation Capitalisme tardif presented at the OFFTA festival in 2019 and Manuel de la vie sauvage created at Duceppe in 2021, as well as numerous literary publications, Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard measures the impact of popularizing a scientific hypothesis when it finds its way into today's media magma.

Jean-Philippe's collaboration with PÀP began a long time ago. Based on the idea of a world that had yet to experience Darwin's theories, he first wrote Sur la destination des espèces. This piece was the subject of laboratory work and a reading at the Festival du Jamais Lu 2016. Then, time passed and we collectively entered an era of post-truth and ideological recuperations of all kinds.

Vous êtes animal premiered in January 2023 at Théâtre de Quat'Sous, Montreal.

Presented in collaboration with Les Voyagements - Théâtre de création en tournée.