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.
This translation was made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
And If One Night
By Lisa L’Heureux | Translated by Mishka Lavigne Translated from ET SI UN SOIR (Quebec, Canada)
“Modern and poetic…four characters whose desires for true human contact seek to transcend the virtuality of screens and the superficiality of online relationships…Lisa L’Heureux’s characters use the darkness of night to reveal their true colors. Even if they’re hide behind an avatar or keyboard to communicate…Mia, Danielle, Anita and Joseph emerge from the shadows with courage and clumsiness as believable as it is touching. Her pen rich with accuracy and affection, Lisa L’Heureux portrays a generation in search of self and real, concrete meaning to give to its intimacy. “– ici.radio-canada.ca
In a grey apartment building, four characters live in a dreamlike space in which time moves forward without moving, sometimes in an offbeat and unsettling way. Written as a fragmented dream, this choral piece draws its inspiration from the night to dive into zones of human intimacy that are often hidden. Here, inaction, the moment that precedes the act, is the root of all tension.
Et si un soir was directed by Lisa L’Heureux, produced by Théâtre Rouge Écarlate with the support of Théâtre du Trillium, Nouvelle Scène Gilles-Desjardins in Ottawa, 2018 and received a residency at Chartreuse-lez-Avignon, France, 2015. It was a shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award French Language Drama 2019, the Prix du livre d’Ottawa (2019) and the Emerging Author Award Prix littéraire Émergence de l’AAOF (2019).
It was the recipient of the Prix littéraire Trillium (2019) and Lisa’s production won the Prix Rideau, Outstanding Production Award.
This translation was made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.
Et si un soir (2018) | A Théâtre Rouge Écarlate production, with the support of Théâtre du Trillium, presented at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins. | Photo credit: Jonathan Lorange
About the playwright
LISA L’HEUREUX
LISA L’HEUREUX (She, her, hers) is an Ottawa-based playwright, director, and dramaturg. She is a graduate of University of Ottawa (B.A. in Theatre and History) and of University of British Columbia (M.A. in Theatre Research). With her company, Théâtre Rouge Écarlate, she has created Ciseaux, Pour l’hiver (Prix Jacques-Poirier 2017), and Et si un soir, cocreated Proximité and directed Projet D. She has had playwright residencies in Belgium (Mariemont, CED-WB), France (La Chartreuse de Villeneuve les Avignon) and with Théâtre du Trillium (Ottawa). She has contributed to many collaborative pieces, such as À quoi ça sert d’être brillant si t’éclaires personne (NAC French Theatre). As a dramaturg, Lisa worked with Satellite Théâtre (Moncton) and with Sudbury playwright Antoine Côté Legault. She is completed a podcast version of Et si un soir.
About the translator
Mishka Lavigne
Mishka Lavigne (She,her, hers) is a playwright and literary translator based in Ottawa/Gatineau. Her translation work for theatre has been seen in Ottawa, Montreal, and France. Héritage, her translation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun opened the 2019-2020 season at Duceppe in Montreal. She is currently working on a French translation of Karen Hines’ All The Little Animals I Have Eaten. Her translations of poetry were published in Ontario and Québec, included the recently published Cette blessure est un territoire, a French translation of Billy-Ray Belcourt’s Griffin Poetry Prize winning collection This Wound is a World. Her own works include Cinéma (Théâtre la Catapulte and Théâtre Belvédère.), Vigile (Théâtre Rouge Écarlate). Her play Havre recently won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (French) and was shortlisted for the Prix Michel-Tremblay.
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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.
