I’m Not Here

By Marie-Claude Verdier | Translated by Alexis Diamond

I’m Not Here

By Marie-Claude Verdier | Translated by Alexis Diamond
In association with PTC, Ruby Slippers Theatre and Upintheair Theatre

Directed by Heidi Taylor

Featuring Melissa Oei*

In a torrent of words, a young woman describes her unraveling daily existence, slipping inevitably towards the brutal unknown. Between her boss’s cupcake schedule and the distractions of her life as an urban singleton, she breaks down: a total implosion. Nothing’s ever over because nothing ever starts.

Winner of Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal’s Cole Foundation Translation Competition.

About the playwright

Marie-Claude Verdier

Marie-Claude Verdier took her first steps in play writing as a teenager when her tale Paradise.com was selected by Théâtre le Clou for Les nouveaux Zurbains série III in 1999. The text was published in the collection The Zurbains with Dramaturges éditeurs and in Jamais de la Vie by Éditions du Passage. She continued her career by studying at the École Supérieure de Théâtre de L’UQAM in criticism and dramaturgy and she did a master’s degree on the dramaturgy of the museums at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In the fall of 2013, her first play Je n’y suis plus was presented at the french Theatre of the NAC and at Zones Théâtrales . This production received two Prix Rideau Awards.

About the translator

Alexis Diamond

Alexis Diamond is a Montreal-based playwright, opera librettist, musical lyricist and translator. Recently, Alexis won a Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac, Quebec, and an Individual Artist residency at the international Saari Residence, Finland. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations for audiences of all ages have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in the U.K. She is currently working on Strange Land, a historical epic set in Montreal in 1942, and two musicals. She is co-founder of Composite Theatre Co., a long-standing member of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and an active member of Montreal’s Espace Freestanding Room.