Summer theatre across Quebec: six shows worth tracking from now through August

Quebec's summer theatre season spans comedy, experimental street performance, and a grand Cirque du Soleil homage — six productions that showcase the province's breadth of live performance.

Le Duplex, a French comedy adapted to Quebec sensibilities, arrives at Théâtre Hector-Charland in L'Assomption (July 9–August 2) and Juliette-Lassonde in Saint-Hyacinthe (mid-August dates). The play drew over 200,000 spectators in France with its premise: a couple multiplies "twisted plans and dubious schemes" to evict their downstairs neighbours and expand their home. Valérie Blais and François Massicotte lead the cast, with direction by Charles Dauphinais, who helmed La Florida.

Boulevard Pérusse marks the first theatrical work by comedian François Pérusse, a project he's carried for 20 years. Playing at Théâtre Lionel-Groulx in Sainte-Thérèse (July 11–August 22), the production features six performers including Ève Landry and Philippe Racine in a story of ecological entrepreneurs facing a crisis when one of their factories is seized in a dictatorship. Pérusse's signature sound design — effects, voices offstage, the man-orchestra touch — extends his comedic style to the stage, with Hugo Bélanger directing.

Indiscrétions publiques enters its 12th edition as a free summer tradition across Montreal parks (July 10–August 19). The Théâtre du Ricochet program presents seven short pieces on social issues — polarization, eugenics, speciesism, homelessness — written by Josianne Cossette, Danielle Thibault, Lou Séguin, Sophie Belleau, Maxime Desjardins, Fanny-Maude Roy, and Florence Conant. Professional actors including Jon Lachlan Stewart and Stéphanie Cardi mingle with newly trained performers.

Camion d'intervention artistique, a street-arts brigade, returns to Montreal parks with acrobatic cirque and fire-truck spectacle. Eight artists deliver harness acrobatics and physical theatre on five dates: July 11 at Parc Jarry; July 17 at Parc Ahuntsic; July 18 at Parc Walter-Stewart; August 21 at Parcs Gohier and Sauvé; August 29 at Parc Angrignon. The Montreal-based Bazar Création company stages the free performance, choreographed by Debra Lynn Brown and directed by Étienne Bordeleau.

Paradis perdus, a Cirque du Soleil tribute to musician Jean Leloup, runs July 15–August 15 at the Amphithéâtre Cogeco in Trois-Rivières. Marie-Ève Milot directs 27 artists in what the company calls a "grandiose celebration of the strange, the free, and the marvellous" — an homage to the rare auteur of Dôme, whose public presence has grown rarer in recent years.