This translation was made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
Shorelines
By Mishka Lavigne
Translated to French by Lisa L’Heureux
Translated from Shorelines
A small military-occupied community sits, waiting, parched of natural water while nearby levees hold the rising global shoreline. Seventeen-year-old twins Alix and Evan pass the time in an empty, abandoned pool with what they are able to scavenge from the abandoned houses, while government official Portia returns to familiar places, her past colliding with the present. The planned evacuation notice that eventually reaches all cities has finally come, but the twins learn that survival is not guaranteed. As they rush to reach their grandmother, a retired journalist now living with dementia, her snippets of memories flow like humanity’s record player, skipping tracks before the final flood.
A non-linear poetic play that acts like a postcard from the future, Shorelines is about family and community in a world ravaged by climate change. It also speaks to the inevitable inequality of disaster response and how poorer communities are disproportionately affected by it. Mishka Lavigne’s message within her lyrical piece is urgent and multi-dimensional: it is a reminder that all things are connected and hope can only lie in the relationships we form with the people around us.
Meet the Playwright & Translator
About the playwright
Mishka Lavigne
Mishka Lavigne (she / her) is a playwright, screenwriter, and literary translator. Her plays have been developed and performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, Haiti, and Mexico.
Her play Havre, created at La Troupe du Jour (Saskatoon) received the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2019. Copeaux, produced by Théâtre de Dehors (Ottawa) was awarded the same prize in 2021, as well as the Prix Jacques-Poirier. Murs, initially produced as a podcast by Transistor Médias, Créations In Vivo and the Théâtre Populaire d’Acadie, received rave reviews in France and will be produced for the stage in 2023.
Mishka also writes in English. Her play Albumen, produced by TACTICS in 2019 (Ottawa), received the QWF Playwriting Prize and her play Shorelines was staged (TACTICS) in 2023.
As a translator of both French and English, Mishka has more than twenty credited translations of theatre, prose and poetry.
About the translator
Lisa L’Heureux
Originally from the Outaouais region, Lisa L’Heureux holds a bachelor’s degree in theater and history from the University of Ottawa (2005) and a master’s degree in theater research from the University of British Columbia (2008).
A writer and director, she founded Théâtre Rouge Écarlate in 2012, for which she created and directed Ciseaux, Pour l’hiver and Et si un soir, and directed Projet D. Very active in the Ottawa-Gatineau theater community, she has participated in the writing of numerous collective projects, including Love is in the birds: une soirée francophone sans boule disco (Théâtre du Trillium), Comment frencher un fonctionnaire sans le fatiguer (Poids Plumes), and Tapage et autres bruits sourds (Poids Plumes and Théâtre français du Centre National des arts).
Related Projects & News
International Translation Workshop: And if one night
Quebecois Quantum
with Presence Theatre (London, UK)
New Translation Commissions: And if one night
By Lisa L’Heureux | Translated Mishka Lavigne
In a grey apartment building, in a fragmented dream, 4 characters dive into the hushed zones of human intimacy. Recipient of the Prix littéraire Trillium and the Prix Rideau.
“Modern and poetic…four characters whose desire for true human contact seeks to transcend the virtuality of screens” – ici.radio-canada.ca
Podcast: Et si un soir
Listen to French language podcast version of Et si un soir. Produced by Lisa L’Heureux in partnership with Transistor Média, Prise de Parole and Théâtre Rouge Écarlate.