‘Cabrol’ Dwarfs Mainstage

In the original production and in most subsequent interpretations, the protagonist of “The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol” is a dwarf. But at 5’10”, Carolyn W. Holding ’10, who plays Lucie in the upcoming Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) production, doesn’t quite fit that mold.

“She’s very tall and very lovely and beautiful, which is not what Lucie in fact is,” says producer Mollie M. Kirk ’07. Specific physical descriptions were not a priority when Kirk and director C. Calla Videt ’08 cast the production.

“We wanted people who were aware of their bodies, who were able to make rhythm, who were interested in listening to music and being creative,” Kirk says.

The emphasis on physical awareness is key in HRDC’s production of “The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol,” which will run from April 6-8 and April 11-14 at the Loeb Mainstage.

MULTIMEDIA, WITH SMELLS

The play follows the life of a poor French countrywoman through the first half of the 20th century, from birth to the afterlife. Lucie, a social outcast, searches for love and acceptance.

Although departing from the traditional emphasis on Lucie’s physique, this production nonetheless is very concerned with physicality through movement. Besides a mobile set—complete with live statues, turning windows, and flying trees—the actors perpetually move to a complex choreography.

“We’re incorporating a lot of dance elements into the staging of the show,” Kirk says. “It’s not a ballet, but that doesn’t mean we’re not... having rhythm as part of the show, not with just people standing around, but beating out a rhythm, moving bodies to become animals or parts of buildings.”

“I think this production seeks to tell a story by pushing the boundaries between theater and dance,” Videt says. “I hope it will be a visceral journey for an audience through innovative use of text, bodies, music, and light.”

Even beyond movement, the creators say “The Three Lives” is a sensory and experimental production that features an exotic score and a set complete with farm equipment—as well as the scent of fresh mulch. The actors’ dialogue ranges from the squawking of chickens to lines in French and Spanish.

“It’s been really exciting to bring a part of theater like this that is so unusual” says Kirk, “but it’s not unusual in a way that will make people uncomfortable.”

“A lot of time, experimental theater will make people [feel] like, ‘I don’t get this, why is this person in a black box speaking gibberish at me?’ [Our show] really is something that is coherent,” Kirk adds.

KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

Because Holding does not have an obvious impediment that typically makes the character stand out from society, she evokes the play’s greater questions, the creators say.

“The thing about Lucie is that there’s nothing inherently bad about her,” says Holding. “The question is: Do people treat her as outcast because she is strange or is she strange because people treat her as an outcast?”

The production crew and cast hope that such questions will engage and stimulate their audience.

“Part of this play really invites audience to use their imagination. We’re encouraged that people will take up that offer,” Kirk says.

LUCIE AS FRESHMAN

While the play takes place in poor, rural early 20th century France, Kirk is confident that the universality of the play’s greater themes will strike a chord of recognition in all audience members.

And the Lucie that Holding plays is not so far removed from Harvard after all.

“With Lucie, I tap into that bit of me who sometimes feels socially awkward,” Holding says. “In a way, she’s just an awkward adolescent who never quite learns to pick up on social cues.”

—Staff writer April B. Wang can be reached at abwang@fas.harvard.edu.