Confession Publique
Thursday, October 9th 7:30–9:00 PM, Port Theatre, Nanaimo, BC
Crimson Coast Dance is honoured to open our 2025/26 Season with Confession Publique. The show takes place on Thursday, October 9th and Friday, October 10th at 7:30pm. This thought-provoking show will grip your sensibilities — weaving together music, theatre, spoken word and dance in a powerful reflection on humanity’s yearning for validation and the complex interplay of power and vulnerability that evokes.
Ideated, directed, and choreographed by Mélanie Demers (Montreal) and brought to life on stage by Angélique Willkie with the participation of Anne-Marie Jourdenais and an original score by Frannie Holder, the essence of the show is in its process. The trust that emerges from the profound encounter between the artists allows for a total unveiling, a courageous laying bare of the inner paradoxes we all face daily.
Confession Publique immerses the audience in a duel between intimacy and publicity. It’s through this push and pull that we can observe our shortcomings, nurse our scars, and contemplate our faults. It’s through our flaws, our fractures, and our fissures that we find our authenticity. The visceral experience of these concepts, expressed in this work of performance art, offers to glue these fragments of ourselves back together.
Post show Audience to Artist chat takes place in the lobby
and is facilitated by Sonnet L’Abbe
Content Advisory: This show is intended for mature audiences. It is based on a series of stories referencing racism, sexual violation, living in an aging body, and the power of transformation. It contains nudity and mature content. 18+ suggested.
Tickets available at The Port Theatre Box Office, 250.754.4555 or porttheatre.com/tickets
Ideation, direction and choreography : Mélanie Demers
Interpretation : Angélique Willkie with the participation of Anne-Marie Jourdenais
Direction of rehearsals : Anne-Marie Jourdenais
Dramaturgy : Angélique Willkie
Original music : Frannie Holder
Additional music : Excerpt from The Fairy Queen, composed by Henry Purcell and sung by Angelique Willkie
Scenography : Odile Gamache
Lighting : Claire Seyller
Costumes : Elen Ewing
Technical management : Emmanuel Bossé-Messier
Production management : Alec Arsenault
Supertitle control : Alec Arsenault
Thanks : Éléonore Loiselle
Teaser production : Stefan Verna
Creation 2021
This creation is the subject of a doctoral research-creation at UQAM’s Département d’Études et pratiques des arts.
Coproductors
La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines (Montréal, Canada)
Agora de la danse (Montréal, Canada)
Centro per la Scena Contemporanea/Operaestate Festival (Bassano del Grappa, Italie)
MAYDAY is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Conseil des arts de Montréal. Membre de Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique En collaboration artistique avec le Centro per la Scena Contemporanea – Operaestate Festival