Created in 1999.
Performed in 15 countries, in 8 languages. Nearly 400 performances… and as many ovations! Still available for touring.
This superb production has dazzled its audiences by addressing with humor and compassion the always pertinent theme of aging. 2019 marks Victoria’s 20th anniversary.
When creating Victoria, Dulcinea was determined to find a way to address old age, vulnerability, loss and death that was neither morbid, frightening nor depressing. The artist and her creative team sought to open dialogues and change attitudes towards old age, others’ as well as our own.
Rare are the artists who succeed in touring a performance for such a long time and in such beneficial ways for the community.
Our heroine, Victoria, has lost her memory; she’s lost her pussycat, she’s lost control over her life… and her bladder. She has lost almost everything. Victoria is but a shadow of herself; a character who has forgotten her role, a puppet who adapts and adopts comic and dramatic situations as her imagination dictates. Her wheelchair is also her rocking chair, her prison, her tango partner and her flying chariot.
Victoria is a show for any audience, intergenerational, which has a particularly strong impact for anyone with a loved one who’s lost their memory. In 20 years of touring internationally, thousands of testimonials have confirmed that Victoria, this elderly lady who lives intensely in the present moment, goes straight to the heart and brings audiences a new capacity for acceptance, making the heart lighter. Dulcinea Langfelder introduces us to an old and sick Victoria and teaches us to love her deeply, sincerely, to laugh with her, to appreciate her moments of lucidity, her generosity, her empathy. As we leave the theater, we just want to go hug a loved one.
Based on an original idea and texts by Charles Fariala.
Choreography and Staging: Dulcinea Langfelder
Set and Lighting Design: Ana Cappelluto
Electroacoustic Compositions*: Christian Calon
Musical compositions: Philippe Noireaut
Videos: Yves Labelle
Consultant for staging of videos: Jimmy Lakatos
Directorial Coaching: Maryse Pigeon
Creation of the role of the Orderly: Real Bosse
Technical Director : Vincent Santes Gonzalez (or Martin Lepage)
Technical team : Danys Levasseur, Erik Lapierre, Patrice Daigneault, (or Bruno Lavoie)
On stage:
Victoria : Dulcinea Langfelder or Anne Sabourin
The Orderly : Éric Gingras or Érik Lapierre
* Other music:
Victoria Tango: Philippe Noireaut and Duclinea Langfelder
Padam… Padam: Norbert Glanzberg / Henri Contet
Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin Funny Face: George Gershwin
My One and Only: George and Ira Gershwin
Pre and Post performance tunes:
Imagination: J. Burke / J. Van Heusen
Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin
Pianos and arrangements: Philippe Noireaut
Vocals : Dulcinea Langfelder
The Victoria Project consists of creating a community-oriented event around the performance.
Several partners are invited to join the event – the Alzheimer Society, community-based family services and support organizations, health care workers, public and private institutions – multiplying the impact of outreach to more citizens. The loss of memory and cognitive faculties does not belong to any culture, origin, social class or religion; it reaches, without difference, all strata of society, and the number of cases continues to increase. The Victoria Project allows to reach different groups who will be receptive to the beneficial effect of the show, and thus create a beneficial effect for the whole community.
The presenter is our first partner in this project. With our support and the expertise our company has acquired, the presenter gathers additional partners in their communities, institutions and organizations (from the local Alzheimer’s Society to rest homes to the local police or fire departments) who share similar objectives in terms of caring for seniors and/or sensitization the situation lived by senior citizens. The scope of the project depends on the complicity we manage to create with various players in the community. We invite these participants to set up kiosks in the lobby to inform people of their services as well we invite specialists to participate in post-performance discussions on stage, after the show.
The following are 3 workshops that can be offered in addition to the show Victoria.
Dulcinea Langfelder, “committed citizen involved in her milieu and having significantly contributed to the betterment of the elder community’s well-being, quality of life, participation and role in Quebec society”, with the work that she has done for 10 years with Victoria.
Critic’s Award for best performer in physical theatre, during Fringe festival, Edinburgh (more than 2000 different shows were presented at the festival each year).
To Dulcinea Langfelder as best performer in physical theatre category at the Edinburgh’s Festival.
Public‘s prize for the “most impressive performance of the season 2006-2007”.
Theater festival in Assomption, Quebec, 2005.
To Ana Cappelluto for best stage design in Victoria (montreal anglophone Critics Circle award).