King Dave: The fall

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Presented for the first time in English, King Dave, with a music score by Jenny Salgado, tells the story of a young boy from Montreal North who makes one bad decision after another and plunges into gun violence.

Director Christian Fortin has been involved in all of King Dave’s stage metamorphoses since the text was first written. He has a special bond with the script writer, who was his student in CEGEP and whom he helped prepare for drama-school auditions. This was a rewarding relationship, since the play brought Alexandre Goyette both the Masque for original text and for best male performance (2005). Adapted to the screen by Podz (2016), the play was entirely revised by Alexandre Goyette and Anglesh Major, the young gifted Haitian actor who personified Dave when the play ran in the Duceppe theatre (2020).

“King Dave is a significant text; the fact that its new version was sold out in such a popular theatre underscores that point,” Fortin said, adding that throughout the tour, the theatres were full. It was now time to consider an English adaptation of the text: “I had wanted this translation for a long time, but I needed to be patient.” Eventually, Eda Holmes, the Centaur’s artistic director, showed interest and Patrick Emmanuel Abellard, the bilingual actor who toured the text throughout Quebec and is also a Centaur insider (Paradise Lost, Choir Boy), was chosen to do the work.

Musical scores

Jenny Salgado, a founding member of Muzion, a groundbreaking band on the French hip-hop music scene, is behind the sound and music design of the show. But she also contributed a lot to the rehearsal room. Fortin explained: “We were switching from a white actor to an actor of colour and we needed to be watchful, so I asked Jenny to support me in the process.” The director truly values the views of the Montreal-based musician of Haitian descent and admires her straightforwardness. “Even today, a mischief or a crime that is perpetrated by a coloured citizen does not have the same outcome as if it was committed by a white person,” he said. So he sought advice in order to make informed decisions about what to put in place to make the whole thing relatable to all audiences.

“Jenny did not intercede in the text, but she probed it,” Fortin said, noting that she asked questions such as: Do the musical arrangements have to reinforce or soften the impact of the lines? “The text itself is very musical,” said Fortin. “It has a very specific rhythm and it is performed like a score—in a way, the comedian is rapping.” The few sentences that were added in Creole were kept in the English version. Salgado was keen to incorporate some Haitian religious music into the show’s sound design. “I agreed, because I thought it sounded great and I wanted her musical range to tint the 15 or so songs of the production.” Music is prominent in key scenes and there are long pauses. But the director hinted that the musician also created whole pieces, which he enjoys listening to on his phone. “Jenny could make a record of this work,” he said.

The sound of Montreal

The music of a show often helps to better understand the psychology of a character. Here, since King Dave has no real-world decor, the soundscape accompanies and instantly locates the action. Fortin has examples: “When Dave arrives in the métro, the audience can hear the cars on a melodic background; if he gets to a party, we instantly know it when we hear the distant sounds of the celebration. A piano is on stage and Patrick Emmanuel Abellard sits behind it on several occasions. These original scores were composed by Anglesh Major. The keys of the piano blend into the surrounding sound, which has been mixed in a masterful way,” said Fortin.

King Dave is a highly urban drama. The main character uses public transport; he refers to some Montreal parks, to the Saint-Michel district. The performance addresses matters of prejudice and identity, and reveals the multicultural dimension of the city. When Dave goes to visit his mother, the audience overhears Haitian harmonies—we are somewhere else, but still in Montreal. Then, all of a sudden, it’s heavy metal, and the public realizes immediately Dave has arrived at a Quebec biker’s house. “This blend of influences is the true essence of the Montreal sound that Jenny and her band Muzion embody, and when I listen to the music in the show, that’s what I recognize,” Fortin said.

The director has never worked in English before: “It’s not a language I’ve perfected,” he said, “but I know the play by heart and I have an English-speaking actor by my side to make sure I don’t miss anything.”

The English version of the script is a bit shorter but still has to match trigger moments in the musical score at the same time as in French. “Patrick actually translated the play as he performed it, so it works really well.” Fortin aims to bring King Dave to the East Coast, saying: “I want everyone to discover this show.” In the meantime, King Dave is at Centaur.