Review: Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Photo Angela Potvin.

The Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre is run by a student group at McGill University providing a much need creative outlet for students and their seasons are packed with fun and thoughtful productions. This season they are mounting four plays, purely as an extracurricular activity. Considering the McGill doesn’t have a separate theatre department, it seems all the more important that the student body have a way to express themselves creatively and to hone their craft.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Photo Angela Potvin.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly written by Jean-Dominique Bauby and adapted and directed by Rachel Stone is a very beautiful, sweet play. It’s about a fashion editor who suffers a stroke and is only left with the power to use his left eye to communicate. It explores what happens when an entire way of life is shockingly taken away from you. We get to follow the evolution of Jean-Dominique’s recovery and the return of his will to live, as he explores the world through his painstaking new way of communicating.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Photo Angela Potvin.

While the subject matter is heavy, the show never drags, and while the
staging is a little basic, there are some lovely moments. Nic Tucotte’s performance in particular as the character of Papinou brings out some especially poignant points of comparison in the pre- and post-accident Jean-Dominique’s approach to life. The choice to mount this play is especially interesting and topical considering the debate around physician assited suicide going on right now. It provides a unique perspective that is not always popular, but that is very important to consider in the context what Parliament is currently deciding for us all.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is playing at Morrice Hall, in the
Islamic Studies Building (basement level, 3485 Rue McTavish) Wednesday
– Saturday, February 3 – 6 and 10 – 13, 8 pm, doors at 7:45 tickets 6$
students-seniors, 10$ regular.