When Maude Laurendeau received an autism spectrum diagnosis for her daughter Rose in 2017, she quickly faced many obstacles to obtaining services and supporting her daughter. This journey, she tells it in rose and the machine.
This documentary, directed by Édith Patenaude, which will be screened at Le Diamant tonight and tomorrow at 19:30 and Saturday at 15:00, has won several awards since its premiere last November at the Théâtre Duceppe.
“I realized I wasn’t the only one in this situation and felt the urgency to speak out about this reality. A year after I received the diagnosis, I proposed this project to Annabel Soutar, artistic director of the Porte Parole company with which I had worked for Sexy Béton. A documentary theater about a Concorde flyover collapse that killed five people in Laval,” she said in an interview.
In the year that led to the realization of this project, Maude Laurendeau faced the complexity of the health and education systems, which she reports on in Rose et la machine.
“I received conflicting information and had trouble sorting it all out. I had started recording my meetings with the various stakeholders and taking lots of notes. Eventually, I realized I had a lot of material and that I could faithfully recreate the course to make a play out of it,” she said.
Maude Laurendeau explains her journey through the different systems on her way.
“It is also a reflection on our relationship to difference. Everything you see on stage happened in reality,” she noted.
43 rolls
On stage, Maude Laurendeau is accompanied by Julie Le Breton, her daughter’s godmother, who plays 43 roles. She puts herself in the shoes of specialists, parents of autistic children and loved ones who have accompanied her throughout her process.
“It’s an amazing performance with a lot of scores she had to learn to emulate those people on stage. It’s pretty awesome to see her go,” said Maude Laurendeau.
The actress, who we caught on TV’s Yamaska, admits that reliving the obstacles that stood in her way from gig to gig isn’t easy.
“It’s hard to break away from what I’ve been through. I can’t. I experience all of this anew with every performance. I’m reliving it with spectators accompanying me in those moments and I feel a lot less alone,” she stressed.
Maude Laurendeau specifies that Rose et la machine is for everyone and not just for people who come close to the autism spectrum on a daily basis.
“We all have a relationship with the system or we are part of it. The healthcare system. The schoolsystem. A lot of people feel empowered by what I’ve been through,” she said.