Our Success is Measured in the Success of the Artists We Work With
Over Covid 19, to help keep artists employed and ensure continued creative dialogue across distance, language & culture, Bouche Theatre Collective connected playwrights & translators, commissioned translations, and developed the new texts.
We are thrilled one of our first pandemic commissions is having it’s English Language Premiere!
TALISMAN THEATRE
STILL LIFE
By Marie-Ève Milot & Marie-Claude St-Laurent
Translated by Rhiannon Collett
Directed by Emma Tibaldo
Translated from Chienne(s)
More Info: www.talisman-theatre.com
Oct. 28 – Nov. 9, 2024
La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines
3700, Saint-Dominique street,
Montréal Qc, Canada
Still life is a brilliant study of a writer struggling with general anxiety disorder. Severely shaken by a panic attack on her birthday, she is bewildered as to the cause–she seems afraid of fear itself and becomes a shut-in! Alarmed by her retreat from society, her family and friends gather at her door to coax her out.
A candid look at anxiety, this feminist play criticizes performance-oriented culture. Still life illustrates how society responds when one falls short of the accomplishments expected at life’s first major milestone. It proposes that art can heal the past and provide hope for the future.
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM
Players / Acteurs:
Cara Rebecca, Joey Lespérance, Cary Lawrence, Anton May, & Nora Guerch.
Designers / Concepteurs:
Set Design / Décor : Lyne Paquette | Costume & Props Design / Costumes et des accessoires : Fruzsina Lanyi | Lighting Design / Lumière : Lucie Bazzo | Sound Design / Son : Jackie Gallant | Movement / Mouvement : Leslie Baker | Stage Manager / Régisseure : Elisabeth Nyveen.
This translation was commissioned by Bouche Theatre Collective and developed in association with Ruby Slippers Theatre (CAN) and British Equity (UK). We gratfully appreceiate the support of Canada Council for the Arts. and made possible with the support of Canada Council for the Arts
Meet our Playwrights & Translator
About the playwrights
Marie-Ève Milot & Marie-Claude St-Laurent are the Artistic Directors of Théâtre de l’Affamée. Mandated to invest in a (re) new Feminist/feminine theatre, they create complex characters that can be identified outside the binary mode of gender, question normativity and provoke new possibilities. Active members of Femmes pour l’Équité en Théâtre (F.E.T.), they co-wrote the Jeu magazine cry t action, addressing the under-representation of women in theatre, and created reference documents for students and faculty about the under-representation of women and the systems that marginalize them. They have written 8 works together including Cour à scrap – Portrait d’une famille reconstituée, Débranchée (Unplugged) (shortlisted for the prix Louise-LaHaye 2017) and Guérilla de l’ordinaire, (shortlisted for the prix Michel-Tremblay 2020). Their essay La coalition de la robe, co-written with Marie-Claude Garneau, was published in Editions du remue-ménage in 2017. Théâtre de l’Affamée
Marie-Ève Milot
(Elle)
Since graduating l’École de théâtre du Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe, Marie-Eve Milot has been deeply involved in the theatre world. As an actress, she has collaborated with Hugo Bélanger (Princess Turandot, Pinocchio, Peter et Alice), Marc Beaupré (Ce samedi il pleuvait), Serge Denoncourt (Thérèse et Pierrette à l’École des Saints-Anges), Geneviève L. Blais (Si les oiseaux, Local B-1717) and Sébastien David Scratch. She was seen le Petit Théâtre de La Colline in Paris, in Les barbelés by Annick Lefebvre, staged by Alexia Boerger, and then remounted the show at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous. She can be seen on large and small screen (Les pays d’en haut, 5e rang).
Marie-Claude St-Laurent
(Elle)
Marie-Claude St-Laurent is an actor, author, feminist activist, co-editor of La Nef aux Éditions du remue-ménage. On the small screen, she was seen in the popular youth show Vrak La vie and is more recently as a cast member in L’écrivain public III and des Sioui-Bacon V. On stage, she produced Guérilla de l’ordinaire, Chienne(s), Toc Toc, Grease and Aller chercher demain. A member of the steering committee of Espace Go, and collaborated in the research study conducted by the RéQEF.
About the translator
Rhiannon Collett
(They, Them, Theirs)
Rhiannon Collett (they/them) is an award-winning non-binary playwright, performer, director and translator based in Vancouver. They are interested in interdisciplinary creation processes, sexual labour, gender performativity and science fiction. Their works include Miranda & Dave Begin Again, Wasp, Tragic Queens, and The Kissing Game, an urban fantasy revenge drama that explores love, betrayal, friendship and identity commissioned by Youtheatre (Montreal) and Young People’s Theatre (Toronto). It won the Montreal English Theatre Award for Outstanding New Text.
Rhiannon’s work has been presented internationally at the LungA festival in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, and at the Festival les Petites Formes in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Last year they were artist-in-residence at the Mauser Eco House in Costa Rica, and the Performing Arts Forum in St. Erme, France. www.rhiannoncollett.com
News & Development
A Glimpse into New Translation: Still Life
By Marie-Ève Milot & Marie-Claude St-Laurent
Translated by Rhiannon Collett
Translated from Chienne(s) (Quebec, Canada)
“…this show crystallizes the revival of Quebec’s feminist theatre, it is a vibrant homage to art, the place of women to challenge everything, to turn everything upside down, to move from imprisonment to freedom.” – Le Devoir
Artists in Conversation – Contemporary Writing in Canada & USA
Tues, Feb 23 at 14:30 PST | Free
Co-writers Marie-Ève Milot and Marie-Claude St-Laurent with translator Rhiannon Collett join Brittany K. Allen (Studio Theatre, Washington USA) and Keith Barker (Playwrights Guild of Canada) in conversation and introduce excerpts from their latest works.
International New Translation Workshop: Chienne(S)
CHIENNE(S) By Marie-Ève Milot and Marie-Claude St-Laurent | Translated by Rhiannon Collett with British Equity WSW London Branch (Vancouver, Toronto and London)