Larry Tremblay is a writer, director, actor and kathakali specialist. He is the author of over twenty books and is one of Quebec’s most produced and most translated playwrights. His work is noted for the diversity of genres it explores.
In 2001 his play The Ventriloquist had three separate productions, in Paris, Brussels and Montreal. The Montreal production, under the direction of Claude Poissant, garnered six “Gala des Masques” nominations, including Best New Play, and won the Masque for Best Production. The Ventriloquist, already translated into eight languages, has had recent productions in Turino, Mexico, Toronto, Ottawa, Bucarest and London (U.K.). Thanks to an uninterrupted succession of new plays (Anatomy Lesson, Ogre, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, The Genie of Drolet Street, Blue Hands, Soap, Bagpipes, Panda Panda…) Tremblay’s work continues to achieve international recognition. A Chair in love created with composer John Metcalf was the fourth of his works presented on stage in Montreal in 2006, following Three Seconds when the Seine Stopped Flowing, The Story of a Heart, and The Axe which he also directed. In 2007 he shared the stage with Carl Béchard performing in two of his shorter plays The Decline of Destiny and The Trouble with Me.
His novel The Bicycle Eater, published by Leméac, was unanimously saluted by the critics, won the Prix Roman 2003 at the Salon du Livres in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. In 2006 he was awarded the Canada Council Victor-Martyn-Lynch-Staunton Prize for his contribution to the theatre. Gallimard Paris published Piercing, a collection of three of his short stories. In 2008, Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre premiered at Espace Go in Montreal, directed by Claude Poissant (Théâtre Pàp), and was nominated for Best Production 2007-2008 (Montreal) by the Quebec Critics Association.
Larry Tremblay was finalist in 2008 and in 2011 for the Siminovitch Prize. In 2010, Alberta Theatre Project produced at Calgary Abraham Lincoln Goes the Theatre, translated by Chantal Bilodeau, under the direction of Bob White. The same year, his play The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi was directed by Claude Poissant at the Festival TransAmériques (FTA), in Montreal. In 2012, SACD (Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques), in partnership with France Culture, awarded his play, War Cantata, the Prix SADC for best world play written in French and CEAD (Centre des auteurs dramatiques) awarded it the Le Prix Michel- Tremblay for the best play written in Quebec in 2012. Still in 2012, his play Child Object was staged in Quebec City by Christian Lapointe. Apart from his plays, Larry Tremblay published recently two novels highly acclaimed, The Obese Christ and The Orange Grove.
Until 2009, Larry Tremblay was teaching acting and dramatic writing at l’École supérieure de théâtre de l’Université du Québec à Montréal.