This season Bouche had the pleasure of facilitating workshops of Jack Paterson’s translation of of Martin Bellemare’s Western Gold: The Ballad of Georges Boivin and Johanna Nutter’s translation of Annick Lefebvre’s Barbed Wire with British Equity. Both these amazing francophone Canadian playwrights have been shortlisted for the Siminovitch Prize. Congratulations to all the nominees!
Martin Bellmare’s work was described as “dazzling formal mastery” and “virtuoso inventiveness” by the Prix Michel-Tremblay jury, A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada French Language Playwrighting program. He received NTC’s Creation Award for La Liberté (2012) and Moule Robert (2017). In 2018, he received the Prix SACD de la dramaturgie francophone for Maître Karim la perdrix and the Prix Michel-Tremblay for Moule Robert.
Annick Lefebvre founded Le Crachoir, a company that examines the role of the author in the process of creating, producing and presenting theatre. She is the author of Ce samedi il pleuvait (Marc Beaupré, Le Crachoir, Aux Écuries, 2013), La machine à révolte (Jean Boillot, Le Préau / NEST-Théâtre, 2015), Barbelés (Alexia Bürger, Théâtre de Quat’sous et Théâtre La Colline, 2017) and ColoniséEs (René Richard Cyr, CTD’A, 2019). Her play J’accuse (Sylvain Bélanger, CTD’A, 2015) received the BMO Dramatic Writing Award, was a finalist for the AQCT Critics’ Award, the Prix Michel Tremblay and the Governor General of Canada Literary Award in 2015. Annick is currently adapting J’accuse for France (Sébastien Bournac, compagnie Tabula Rasa). Her work is published by Dramaturges Éditeurs.
This year’s winner of the Siminovitch Prize will be announced in a national, virtual ceremony on November 26 at 7 p.m. ET
By Nathalie Boisvert | Translated by Hugh Hazelton
During this current period of uncertainty, it is with a special gratitude to Canada Council for the Arts and a special pleasure to be able to suport freelance and independent artists. BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective New Translation commision series continues with the Govenor General Award nominated play Antigone in the Spring.
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.
“The Antigone of Nathalie Boisvert’s beautiful text is so close to us…It’s impossible not to feel contemporary resonance.” – Sorstu.ca
Antigone in the Spring
By Nathalie Boisvert | Translated by Hugh Hazelton
Translated from Antiogone au printemps (Quebec, Canada)
In this contemporary reimagining of Antigone, in a Montreal of now and myth, birds fall from the sky in the thousands and rot under the sun of an early spring. Antigone and her two brothers, Étéocle and Polynice, are swept up in the popular revolution rumbling through the city. Each must chooses a side: Polynice and Antigone join the protesters and the people, while Étéocle, joins the repressive forces of Creon and the State. During a riot, the two brothers clash and kill each other. Polynice’s body becomes evidence to incriminate the protesters. How can Antigone, despite all the obstacles, escape the fury of power? In times of unrest, how do you stay whole, and true?
Antigone au printemps was first produced in 2017 (Théâtre Fred-Barry) in Montreal by Le Dôme créations théâtrales, directed by Frédéric Sasseville-Painchaud. It received the Prix Émilie Augier from the Académie Française; and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for French Language Drama. In May 2019, it received a dramatic reading at the Teamtheatre Global Quebec event in Munich, Germany.
This translation was made possible by a grant from Canada Cousil for the Arts.
Running Time: 110 min Characters: 1F | 2M
Original Production: Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi (left), Xavier Huard (right) and Léane Labrèche-Dor (centre) Photo credit: @Francis Sercia
About the playwright
Nathalie Boisvert
(She, Her)
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.
About the translator
Hugh Hazelton
(He, Him)
Hugh Hazelton is a Montreal writer and translator who specializes in Quebec and Latin American literature. He has written four books of poetry, including Antimatter (Broken Jaw Press, 2nd edition, with CD, 2010), as well as Latinocanadá: A Critical Study of Ten Latin American Writers of Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007), which received the Best Book of the Year award from the Canadian Association of Hispanists. He has translated twenty works of poetry, theatre and fiction from French, Spanish and Portuguese into English. His latest translations are Volume I of the complete works of the Argentine avant-garde poet Oliverio Girondo (Wolsak & Wynn, 2018), and The Doorman of Windsor Station, a play by Julie Vincent (Playwrights Canada Press, 2017). His translation of Vétiver, a book of poems by Joël Des Rosiers, won the Governor General’s award for French-English translation in 2006. He is a professor emeritus of Spanish at Concordia University in Montreal and former co-director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. In 2016 he received the Linda Garboriau Award from the Banff Centre for his work on behalf of literary translation in Canada, and in 2018 he was awarded the Prix de poésie Lèvres urbaines by Les Écrits des Forges for his dedication to the advancement of poetry. He is an honorary member of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada.
Tales of the Sun [translated from Conte du Soleil] By Philippe Soldevila | Translator: Leanna Brodie With BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective (Vancouver Canada) & British Equity WSW London Branch (London UK)
Special thank you to the UK team Grace Daly, Isaakha Diawara, Pete Picton & Lin Sagovsky and Equity Branch WSW London Branch Producer Lola May; and, from across Canada, Philippe Soldevila (Montreal) and Leanna Brodie (Calgary)
Synopsis: Following a family tragedy, Étienne, 10, and Octavio, his father, have isolated themselves from each other. Étienne prefers his screens, his father takes refuge in his work. Exploring Etienne’s Spanish great-grandmother’s childhood, in the land of the Sun, these two may yet find a way back to each other and connect the worlds of multiple generations. The last chapter of a generational and deeply personal trilogy on the immigrant journey, Conte de soleil takes us on a tour of two continents, and four generations. From Spain to Quebec, from 1917 to 2017, Conte explores identity, the encounter between cultures.
About the Playwright: Philippe Soldevilla Philippe Soldevila is a leading francophone director, playwright, author, and translator. With a BA in French literature (Université Laval) and Theatre (University of Ottawa), he studied at the Conservatory of dramatic art of Quebec. He is the artistic director of Théâtre Sortie de Secours. In May 1998, he received the John Hirsch Award from the Canada Council for the Arts in recognition of his work as a director. He wrote and directed Tale of the Moon (Mask 2006 for Best Production for Young Audiences, Éloizes 2007 Production of the Year Award and ZOF Award of the French Cultural Federation and SAIC). His artistic approach is guided by his fascination with cultural intermingling and identity issues. http://www.sortiedesecours.org/
About the Translator: Leanna Brodie Leanna Brodie is an actor, playwright, and translator whose passions include lifting up the stories and voices of women, and championing a new generation of French-Canadian playwrights by transmitting their extraordinary theatrical visions into the English language. Her original plays The Vic, For Home and Country, The Book of Esther, and Schoolhouse (Talon Books) have been performed across Canada. Her translations include Christian Bégin’s After Me and Why Are You Crying?; Louise Bombardier’s My Mother Dog; Annie Brocoli’s Stardust; Rébecca Déraspe’s You Are Happy, I Am William, and Gametes; Amélie Dumoulin’s Violette; Sébastien Harrisson’s From Alaska and Two-Part Inventions; Catherine Léger’s Opium_37 and I Lost My Husband!; David Paquet’s Wildfire and The Shoe; Olivier Sylvestre’s The Paradise Arms; Philippe Soldevila’s Tales of the Moon; Larry Tremblay’s Panda Panda; and multiple plays by Hélène Ducharme of Théâtre Motus, whose acclaimed, Dora Award-winning Baobab continues to tour China and the Americas after more than 600 performances. http://www.leannabrodie.com
This translation was commissioned by BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective and made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
MIDNIGHT
(Translated from MINUIT)
By Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon
Translated by Alexis Diamond
With Presence Theatre (London UK)
Special thanks to: Layla Jalaei, Kevin McMonagle, Anthony Ofoegbu, Susan Raasay, Sakuntala Ramanee, Ami Sayers, Zara Tomkinson, Adam Tyler, Hemi Yeroham.
In an act of resistance against a despotic government that hunts down seniors and sucks their memories dry, the irrepressible Midnight keeps her mother in hiding, to protect her and her daughter and their secret world. They swap knowing smiles and lost words while braving a lack of food and light, driven mad with love, anger, fear. This homage to a fading civilization stirs up snow and subversion, ancestral culture and instinct: craved, warped, misused, a past re-animated and electrified, just like new.
This translation was commissioned by Talisman Theatre, artistic director Lyne Paquette. Translation dramaturgy was provided by Linda Gaboriau. Dramaturgical support for the translation was provided by Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM), artistic and executive director Emma Tibaldo.
Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon (Playwright)
A year after graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada’s francophone playwriting program, Marie Hélène Larose Truchon won the Le théâtre pour les jeunes publics et la relève playwriting award for her play Reviens!, and received special mentions at the Prix Gratien-Gélinas for Minuit (2013) and Un biseau m’attend (2015). The latter two plays were given staged readings (in 2014 and 2015 respectively) at the Centre de auteurs dramatique’s Dramaturgies en dialogue festival in Montreal. A coproduction of Minuit by the Théâtre Double Signe and the Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke was presented in Sherbrooke (2017) and Montreal (2018). Marie Hélène teaches playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada French language program and is working on several writing projects for all-ages audiences. Her play Crème-Glacée was produced by Théâtre La Seizième (Vancouver, Canada)
Alexis Diamond (Translator)
Alexis is an anglophone theatre artist, opera and musical librettist, translator and theatre curator working on both sides of Montréal’s linguistic divide. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. She also collaborates internationally with artists on performance-installations involving text, movement and sound. In 2018, Alexis began a multiyear collaboration with professor Erin Hurley (McGill University) and Emma Tibaldo (Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal) researching the history of English-language theatre in Québec. In May 2019, Alexis Diamond served as co-artistic director of the famed Festival Jamais Lu, where she presented the mostly French-language Faux-amis with co-author Hubert Lemire, supported by CALQ. Her theatre translations are also in wide circulation: upcoming tours include The Problem with Pink by Érika Tremblay-Roy, published by Lansman (Le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke), and Pascal Brullemans’ The Nonexistant (DynamO Théâtre). Three translations were presented in the 2018-19 season (for Geordie Productions 2Play-Tour, Talisman Theatre and Le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke). Her translation of Pascal Brullemans’ plays for young audiences, Amaryllis and Little Witch, was just published by Playwrights Canada Press. Currently the Quebec Caucus representative for the Playwrights Guild of Canada, she is co-founder of Composite Theatre Co. and a long-standing member of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing (Concordia University) and an M.A. in English Studies (Université de Montréal).
GAMETES By Rébecca Déraspe | Translated by Leanna Brodie with British Equity WSW London Branch (London, UK)
Special thanks you to actors Miranda Heath, Jessica Ellerby, Clive Greenwood and the lovely Lola May for making it all happen.
How do modern young women negotiate love, ambition, and reproduction? What are the lines we can never cross, not even for a friend? In this age of trolling and tribes and irreconcilable views, do we ultimately love our opinions more than we love each other? Acclaimed Québec writer Rébecca Déraspe tackles female friendship, sexuality and fertility, self-fulfillment, and other stuff that shouldn’t be so damn funny, as Anne’s pregnancy threatens her relationship with her lifelong friend Lou. This poetic yet no-holds-barred two-hander features virtuosic transformations as two actresses play both the BFFs and all the people who have shaped their lives over the years. Another comic triumph from the author of You Are Happy, Gametes won the Montreal critics’ prize for best new play of the 2016-17 season.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: RÉBECCA DÉRASPE A leading new voice in francophone playwrighting, Rebecca Déraspe is a graduate of the french language writing program the National Theatre School. She is the author of several plays performed and translated around the world including Two Years of Your Life, More Than You, Bear Skin, Gametes, Nino, I Am William, The Wonderful Journey of Réal de Montréal, Everywhere Else, Our Little Fingers. She is also author-in-residence at the Théâtre la Unicorne. She won the Critics’ Award for “Best Young Audience Show 2018” for her play I Am William, Best Drama Montreal 2017 for her play Gametes and the 2010 BMO Playwright Award for her play Two Years of Your Life.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: LEANNA BRODIE Leanna Brodie is an actor, playwright, and translator whose passions include lifting up the stories and voices of women, and championing a new generation of French-Canadian playwrights by. Her original plays The Vic, For Home and Country, The Book of Esther, and Schoolhouse (Talon Books) have been performed across Canada. Her translations include Christian Bégin’s After Me and Why Are You Crying?; Louise Bombardier’s My Mother Dog; Annie Brocoli’s Stardust; Rébecca Déraspe’s You Are Happy, I Am William, and Gametes; Amélie Dumoulin’s Violette; Sébastien Harrisson’s From Alaska and Two-Part Inventions; Catherine Léger’s Opium_37; David Paquet’s The Shoe; Olivier Sylvestre’s The Paradise Arms; Philippe Soldevila’s Tales of the Moon; Larry Tremblay’s Panda Panda; and multiple plays by Hélène Ducharme.
The translation of Gametes was supported by Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal’s Glassco Translation Residency.
FAIRE DES ENFANTS (RIVER BED) By Eric Noel | Translated by Jordan Arseneault with British Equity WSW London Branch (London, UK)
Special thanks to actors Michèle Belgrand, Ryan Grossett, Will Lewis, Louis Pieris, Dannie Pye, Nicole Wood and the always wonderful Lola May for her organizing.
SYNOPSIS: Written in two acts – “Philadelphie” and “Assomption”– the play is a diptych of Montreal 20something rebellion and a gothic family drama that will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried to leave their suburban home forever.
Philippe is 24 years old, he refuses to be loved. He is self destructing, burning for the dark light: drugs, sex, alcohol, prostitution. One Sunday, very early in the morning, he and his mother wake up at the same time. He’s in the middle of a bad trip, in a strange bed, between two people he doesn’t know; she has nightmares, alone in her house of Assumption. He senses she’s trying to warn him; she senses something terrible has happened.
PRODUCTION HISTORY: Faire des enfants is a visceral and poetic text combining naturalism, surrealism in a blend of lush and gritty language. Receiving the le Prix Gratien-Gélinas in 2010, it was followed by a successful month-long run at Montreal’s prestigious Quat’sous theatre the next year, receiving critical acclaim for its uncanny depiction of grief and strong dialogue. It was immediately translated into German by Frank Weigand under the title Kinder machen and was presented at a series of stage readings. In 2012 it was published by Theater der Zeit.
“The 25-year-old author has brought us a dark and luminous text, a precursor to a beautiful work to come…With a talent and urgency to say that shakes the viewer from his first lines, Fair des enfants touches us right to the heart…At first, we think of Brad Fraser’s plays, wondering where all this sex will lead us. Then there are other characters: Philip’s best friend, mother, father and sister [the main character]. Fair des enfants then transcends the description of an environment to fly to another universe. And touch the universal. The work exposes an essential truth: the quest for love. Philip considers himself unworthy of affection; his quest thus turns into an enterprise of self-destruction. He plunges into tragedy. Pure and sublime.” – Luc Boulanger, Le Devoir, March 11, 2010
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: Eric Noel
Eric Noel is a Quebecois playwright and 2009 graduated of Canada’s National Theatre School French language writing program. He is the author of three contemporary plays in Faire des enfants (2009), Tirade pour Henri (2010) et Ces regards amoureux de garçons altérés (2015). He is also the author of a libretto for an opera by Vincent-Olivier Gagnon, Sans électricité, les oiseaux disparaissent (2009), and the children’s theatre piece La Mère, le Père, le Petit et le Grand (2021). In 2018, he adapted Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince for Theatre La Roulotte with “Asteroid B 612” (2021).
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: Jordan Arseneault
Jordan Arseneault (b. New Brunswick, 1980) is a critic, drag performer, social artist, meeting facilitator and translator. His staged work and participative workshops address issues of criminalization, stigma, mental health, HIV/AIDS, addiction, biculturalism, queerness and community. Former editor of Quebec’s only English language monthly for the LGBT community, 2Bmag (2010-2013), his reviews and articles have been published in Maisonneuve, Nightlife.ca, Forget the Box. He currently lives in Montreal.
Translation commissioned and developed by Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal and the Cole Foundation Award for Emerging Translators.
