BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective is back in action. 2020 began with a series of translation commissions. During this current period of uncertainty, it is with a special gratitude to Canada Council for the Arts allowing us to support freelance and independent artists.
Francophone Canadian playwrighting is on forefront of international playwriting – their work is translated and presented all over the world. It is particularly hard to describe the unique “Langue D’Auteur” created by Francophone Canadian artists as there is nothing quite like it in Western English Language theatre. Imagine Shakespeare, Moliere, Sarah Kane and Martin Crimp smashed together on the page. The poetic or expressionistic are side by side with gritty realism and the mundane often becomes the fantastical. Ancient words, made up words, verse, prose, Joual (everyday Quebecois), other francophone dialects, all literary devices, often the live next to each other on the page.
CENTRE D’ACHATS By Emmanuelle Jimenez | Translated by Johanna Nutter
Searching, finding, buying, again and again: the t-shirt, the earrings, the dog, the rabbit, the snake, the flying carpet… In search of comfort, seven women of divers background and ages dive desperately into a whirlwind of outrageous consumption. Seven prisoners of the shopping mall, each of them encounters her destiny.
Emmanuelle Jimenez examines shopping malls as both symbols of our collective alienation but also of our need for community. The need to share, to communicate, to feel surrounded, then confronts the need to consume more and more of the same things, at the risk of finding our souls bruised and our dreams shattered.
“This is one of the best texts of the new season… A hard-hitting play by Emmanuelle Jimenez.” – Mario Cloutier, La Presse +
Meet the playwright
Emmanuelle Jimenez
Emmanuelle Jimenez trained in performance at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal. While continuing working as an actor, she devoted herself to writing. Among her plays include Oui, madame la ministre! (Productions À Tour de Rôle), Du vent entre les dents (Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui), Un gorille à Broadway (Productions À Tour de Rôle), Rêvez, montagnes! (Nouveau Théâtre Expérimental) and Le dénominateur commun co-written with François Archambault (Théâtre Debout). She has led numerous cultural projects, including with La Maison Bleu in Côte-des-Neiges and the Montreal North Cultural and Community House. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Festival du jamais Lu from 2003 to 2010 and has been a member of the AQAD Board of Directors since 2014.
Meet the translator
Johanna Nutter
Johanna Nutter is artistic director of creature/creature, a polymorphic company born of Nutter’s passion for blurring lines between established divisions. Her work has toured extensively throughout her home province of Quebec, across Canada and internationally, in both English and French, to such venues as Soho Theatre (London), The Pleasance (Edinburgh), Les Halles (Brussels), and La Licorne (Montreal). Known for her intimate and personal collaborations, recent works include Tree Hug, OSCAR, and the multi-award winning my pregnant brother/my playwright sister (2009 – 2018). She won the PWM/Cole Emerging Translator award and brought CHLORINE (Longpré & Michon), which produced and directed at The Centaur (Brave New Looks 2016). She is currently working on texts by Annick Lefèbvre, Guillaume Corbeil, and Étienne Lepage.
This translation was made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective and British Equity London Branch
WESTERN GOLD: THE BALLAD OF GEORGES BOIVIN
By Marting Bellemare | Translated by Jack Paterson Translated from Le Chant de Georges Boivin (Quebec)
Workshoped with Micheal Grinter and Charles Roe | Produced by Lola May and Jack Paterson
At 77, Georges Boivin decides “gives the dice a roll”. Georges just lost his wife, you see, the “centre of his universe”. He’s terrified “he no longer exists for anyone”. But there is life after your 70s and it must continue even after great loss. With his three friends, all the same age as he, he sets out on road trip from Québec to Vancouver, in search of his first love who he hasn’t seen in 50 years. Recipient of Le Prix Gratien-Gélinas 2009
This translation made possible by a commission from Western Gold Theatre (Vancouver) and a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective is back in action. 2020 began with a series of translation commissions. During this current period of uncertainty, it is with a special gratitude to Canada Council for the Arts allowing us to support freelance and independent artists.
Francophone Canadian playwrighting is on forefront of international playwriting – their work is translated and presented all over the world. It is particularly hard to describe the unique “Langue D’Auteur” created by Francophone Canadian artists as there is nothing quite like it in Western English Language theatre. Imagine Shakespeare, Moliere, Sarah Kane and Martin Crimp smashed together on the page. The poetic or expressionistic are side by side with gritty realism and the mundane often becomes the fantastical. Ancient words, made up words, verse, prose, Joual (everyday Quebecois), other francophone dialects, all literary devices, often the live next to each other on the page.
FACELIFT By Nathalie Boisvert | Translated by Johanna Nutter
A woman in her fifties leads us in a makeup tutorial: first the foundation, then the eyes and finally the mouth… As she constructs the perfect face, she shares with us the secrets of successful make-up, her thoughts on the necessity of this camouflage, the dangers of age, loneliness and failure. As she drifts away from the female ideal, she enters into a dialogue with Nelly Arcan and Simone de Beauvoir. The activity of daily make-up turns into a examination a woman’s life, questioning the relationship between women and beauty, seduction, ageing and the subject of women’s freedom in the face of social diktats.
A brand new work, Facelift was featured at TEAMTHEATER TANKSTELLE e.V (Munich) and TeamTheatreGlobal:Quebec 2019
MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT
Nathalie Boisvert
Nathalie Boisvert holds a bachelor’s degree in acting and a master’s degree in drama from the University of Quebec in Montreal (1993). In 1997, her first play, The Sordid Story of Conrad B., was performed at the Festival ide Spa (Belgium), remounted in Brussels and translated into English by Bobby Theodore. In 1999, her work, L’été des Martiens (Lansman),__ premiered simultaneously in Quebec (Théâtre Niveau Parking) and France (La Comédie de la Mandoune) and again produced simultaneously in 2006 in Dusseldorf (Landstheatre) and Berlin (Grips) in German translation by Frank Heibert. Translated into English by Bobby Theodore, it was also produced in 2002 by Theatre Direct (Toronto). In 2006, her play Vie et Mort d’un village, received lauréate des Journées de Lyon (Éditions Comp’Act) and she received le Prix Gratien-Gélinas in 2007 for Buffet chinois. Her Antigone au printemps was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General’s Award French Language Drama and received the Prix Émile-Augier.
MEET THE TRANSLATOR
Johanna Nutter
Johanna Nutter is artistic director of creature/creature, a polymorphic company born of Nutter’s passion for blurring lines between established divisions. Her work has toured extensively throughout her home province of Quebec, across Canada and internationally, in both English and French, to such venues as Soho Theatre (London), The Pleasance (Edinburgh), Les Halles (Brussels), and La Licorne (Montreal). Known for her intimate and personal collaborations, recent works include Tree Hug, OSCAR, and the multi-award winning my pregnant brother/my playwright sister (2009 – 2018). She won the PWM/Cole Emerging Translator award and brought CHLORINE (Longpré & Michon), which produced and directed at The Centaur (Brave New Looks 2016). She is currently working on texts by Annick Lefèbvre, Guillaume Corbeil, and Étienne Lepage.
This translation was made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
This September and October, Bouche was kindly invited by the British Equity WSW London Office to lead some new play development activities. Taking advantage of this opportunity to introduce British artists to francophone Canadian and international works, we workshopped three translations.
From Alaska (Quebec, Canada) By Sébastien Harrisson | Translated by Leanna Brodie
One summer night, a wild-eyed teenage boy bursts into the quiet suburban home of a woman he knows only as “Miss”, declaring that neither of them will leave her house until he gets answers for questions are too painful to ask.
About the playwright: Sébastien Harrisson One of the most innovative voices in contemporary Quebecois theatre, Sébastien Harrisson trained in drama writing at the National Theatre School of Canada. He is the author of over a dozen plays, he is established on both on the Quebec and French stages. With his work has been translated into German, English, Spanish and Flemish.
Special thank you to the wonderful artists Rosie Akerman, Eleanor Bennett, Joan Blackham, Viny Lad, Kavé Niku, Caroline Partridge Jay Ramji, Saria Steeland and James Watterson; Vancouver translator Leanna Brodie joining us a 6AM Vancouver time by Skype, and Lola May for organizing it!
“…smashing nationality and accesibility borders in a Total theatre …” IMA Magazine
Teatro Trieste 34 (Piacenza, Italy) A Global Hive Labs. Creation
Atlantide
Devised by the International Ensemble Directed by River Coello, Carolina Migli & Jack Paterson Global Hive Labs. (Int.), BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective (Canada), Aurora Universty (USA), Chez Actors & Teatro Trieste 34 (Italy)
Environmental Disaster. Political Corruption. Class Warfare. Sound Familiar?
A devised creation inspired by Plato’s Atlantis, the project featured GHL’s unique approach to incivility “Active Access Design”. Access tools are incorporated into the devising process as creative obstacles, ensuring the work is accessible in every moment.
This project featured the incorperation of audio description, captioning, and sign in creation.
The Press
“…a full house for Teatro Trieste 34 and Global Hive…a fusion of epic and contemporary, myth and poetry, in a fascinating total and inclusive theatre, triggering emotions and new perspectives…” Liberta
“…smashing nationality and accesibility borders in a Total theatre that merges so many artistic languages in a full emotional voyage…” IMA Magazine
Gallery
About
Global Hive Labs.
GHL is an international collective and network of companies and artists working together in shared practice. Home countries of participating organizations and artists include Italy, France, Spain, United Kingdom, the U.S.A., Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and China.
Practices include International Devised Collaboration, Multi-Lingual, Multi Disciplinary and Physical Theatre approaches, Long Distance Technologies (use of communication Technologies in creation and presentation) and Active Access Design (integrating Access Design such as audio description, etc. as core creative elements).
A project is workshopped in multiple countries over the space of a year. Projects have premiered at Chicago’s Seppenwolf Theatre (U.S.A.) and London’s The Pleasance Theatre (UK).
CENTRE D’ACHATS
Emmanuelle Jimenez
