The graduation show of our 15 Higher Education program students, directed by Olivier Lépine, takes place from June 4 to 7 at the École de cirque de Québec.
Note to the audience: This show contains certain images and themes that may be sensitive for children under 10, as well as strobe lighting effects.
• 6:00 p.m. – Bar opens (run by the Foundation)
• 7:00 p.m. – Doors open to the public
• 7:30 p.m. – Show begins
• 8:20 p.m. – Intermission (25 min), bar reopens
• 8:45 p.m. – Second half of the show
• 9:35 p.m. – End of the show
• 10:00 p.m. – Venue closes
One autumn evening, a group of friends gathers to celebrate.
On the way, there’s a car crash.
Someone never makes it to the party.
But what if the accident happened on the way back?
Or if this gathering was a memorial of this person, held a year later?
Balancing on the edge of dream and reality, just off a quiet country road, a series of parallel lives unfold, each with vastly different futures. And while we wait, the nights can feel long.
Even in the middle of a celebration.
Olivier Lépine
As a 2005 graduate of the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec, Olivier Lépine has directed nearly thirty stage productions. His theatrical works include purifiés, Le K Buster, vertiges (both finalists for the Award of Excellence for Best Direction), ¡VivaPinoshit!, Barbe Bleue, Coronado (“best show of the next generation” in seasons 13–14 of Première Ovation), Froid, Blackbird, Roméo et Juliette and Scénarios pour sortie de crise, presented at Théâtre de la Bordée.
In 2013, he founded the company Portrait-Robot and presented Femme non-rééducable/Anna P. and Architecture du printemps at Premier Acte. In 2018, he opened the season at Théâtre Périscope with Chapitres de la chute – Saga des Lehman Brothers, which earned him Best Direction awards from both the City of Québec Theatre Prizes and the Critics’ Association.
Since 2011, Olivier has been teaching at the École de cirque de Québec, where he has directed several graduation shows: Déferlantes (2016), Je ne te vois plus (2018), Entre ici et chez toi (2021) and now Les nuits seront longues (2025). In the summer of 2017, he also directed the summer production Crépuscule – Vents & Marées, a free outdoor circus show presented at Québec’s Agora and produced by FLIP Fabrique. With the same company, he went on to direct Petrouchka (with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and later at Paris’s Philharmonie) and SIXº.
A regular collaborator with Machine de Cirque, Olivier performed in Changes (presented over 300 times across GOP cabarets in Germany) and has directed several of their shows, including La Galerie, Fleuve, Errances, 1916 – Le second brasier (with Maxime Perron) and, most recently, Kintsugi.
Disciplines featured in the show:
Félix Adoengga
Krystel Ouellette
Sarah-Soleil Nault
Deiby Morales Martinez
Théo Martin Lopez
Sofia Malacara Arana
Florine Lord-Morin
Gabriel Lemière
Lisa Le Pors-Scouarnec
Alex Wiliam Larson
Izzi Kessner
Samael Hénault
Ewen Fromager
Nathan Forcione-Lambert
Chloé Devineau
Staging: Olivier Lépine
Set design and costumes: Alice Poirier
Lighting: Olivier Lépine
Makeup: Nathalie Simard
Production manager: Claire Gras
Technical director: Léo Jourdain et Christophe Hamel
Head rigger: Patrice Dubé
Educational advisors: Andrée-Anne Hamel, Geneviève Kérouac, Chloé Saint-Jean Richard
Artistic coordination: Danielle Barbeau
Communications and ticket sales: Robin Pueyo
Stage manager: Sonia Montminy
Sound manager: Joséphine Peghaire
Lighting manager: Louis-Philippe Cloutier
Floor manager: Naomie Vogt Roby
Rigger: Pierre Larois
Rigger trainee: Noé Germain-Auclair
Athletic therapist: Sarah-Maude Morin-Boulais
Construction: Ghislain Cormier, Pierre Larois, Bruno Petit, Alice Poirier
