The Sunday Feature, February 5, 2011

Humans (photo: Jaclyn Turner)

Tableau D'Hote gets by with a little help from their friends

by Sarah Deshaies

A month ago, Tableau D'Hote Theatre, a Montreal theatre company with a focus on Canadian content, was facing its final curtain call. Financial difficulties threatened the company, which was founded six years ago by Mathieu Perron and Mike Payette. In a world where many theatre companies don't last more than two years, Tableau D'Hote was already an anomaly, as the struggle for funding is something that many theatre companies, and small businesses, face.

But with a little help from some friends and an indie fundraising website, Tableau D'Hote may yet see another few more years – or at least, see its latest project up and running.

Perron and Payette set up an account for their cashstrapped company on fundraising site, IndieGoGo. A message of appeal was published on their page under the following headings: “Our story,” “The impact,” and “What we need and what you get.”

Review: Humans

(photo credit: Jaclyn Turner)

The Breath of Theatre
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois


Tonight, when the audience arrived to pack the house for the premiere of Tableau D'Hote's production of Daniel MacIvor's Humans, the weather was mild...almost balmy. When we left the theatre, there was a raging snow storm, visibility was damn near nil and the wind was mocking us all.

Oddly, the weather was like a mirror reflection of the evening I had just gone through at the Segal Centre. Inside the stories MacIvor tells began in a gorgeous explosion of energy taken up by the ensemble of ten—a flurry of stage-movement, dance and mime, a fable told about sheep and lions—and the evening ended with a beautiful, crystalline whisper of pure theatricality.

CharPo's Picture of the Week, February 3, 2011

Tableau D'Hote's production of Daniel MacIvor's Humans which opens at the Segal Centre, Saturday (photo credit:  Jaclyn Turner)

Video News: Tableau D'Hôte in trouble

A Twitter notice brought us to this video which describes the financial situation in which the celebrated company finds itself.