NATHALIE BOISVERT (she, her, hers) 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, L’histoire sordide de Conrad B., was performed at the Festival de 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 shortlisted for the 2018 Governor General’s Award French Language Drama and received the Prix Émile-Augier. Antigone is currently being translated to English by Hugh Hazelton.
International New Translation Workshop: Facelift
PRESENCE THEATRE
IN ASSOCIATION WITH BOUCHEWHACKED! THEATRE COLLECTIVE PRESENTS
International Works in New Translation
This live digital reading is part of an ongoing occasional series of Presence ‘virtual’ readings exploring and celebrating new international theatre texts in translation, a main feature of which is the extraordinary work now emerging from the very vibrant Quebecois theatre community. Readings are followed with followed by a discussion/Q&A with the writer and translator.
FREE EVENT
DATE
Monday, Jan. 17th 2022
TIME
PT (Vancouver): 11 AM
ET (Montreal): 2 PM
GMT (London UK): 7 PM
RUNNING TIME
2 hrs including Intermission and conversation with the playwright
FACELIFT
By Nathalie Boisvert | Translated by Johanna Nutter
Translated from FACELIFT (Quebec, Canada)
…a woman in her fifties leads an online makeup tutorial: first the foundation, then the eyes and finally the mouth… As she constructs the perfect face, she shares with us the secrets of successful make-up, her thoughts on the necessity of this camouflage, the dangers of age, loneliness and failure. As she drifts away from the female ideal, she enters into a dialogue with Nelly Arcan and Simone de Beauvoir. The activity of daily make-up turns into an examination of a woman’s life, questioning the relationship between women and beauty, seduction, aging and the subject of women’s freedom in the face of social diktats. A brand new work…
A live reading of a new work FACELIFT by Quebecois playwright Nathalie Boisvert, Monday Jan. 17th at 7pm via Zoom, followed by a discussion/Q&A with the writer and also the translator Johanna Nutter.
This is part of an ongoing occasional series of Presence ‘virtual’ readings exploring and celebrating new international theatre texts in translation, a main feature of which is the extraordinary work now emerging from the very vibrant Quebecois theatre community in association with BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective.
The professional performers/readers for FACELIFT are: Rachel Bavidge, Mufrida Hayes and Fiz Marcus
Last year, Presence Theatre presented from Quebec, MIDNIGHT by Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon and (A DAY AT THE) MALL by Emmanuelle Jimenez.
Meet our Playwright & Translator
About the playwright
Nathalie Boisvert
About the translator
Johanna Nutter
JOHANNA NUTTER (she, euro-settler, multidisciplinary artist) developed her passion for translation through acting: being one of few perfectly bilingual theatre artists, she played leading roles at Centaur (Good People, You Will Remember Me) and La Licorne (Les Événements). The attention of both circles came thanks to the success of her solo my pregnant brother/mon frère est enceinte, which she translated during a residency in Tadoussac, accompanied by Linda Gaboriau. The show toured across Canada and Quebec in both languages, and to the UK and Belgium. Subsequently, she translated the works of Annick Lefebvre (Barbed Wire), Guillaume Corbeil (You’ll Go Looking for Her), and Florence Longpré & Nicolas Michon’s ballet-theatre hybrid CHLORINE, which she also produced and directed at Centaur, with her company creature/creature.
Land Acknowledgement
Bouche’s activities take place on and are launched from the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish People: the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. We recognize and honour the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation commission and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous sovereignty on this unceded territory.
*A territorial or land acknowledgement is an act of reconciliation that involves making a statement recognizing the traditional territory of the Indigenous people who called the land home before the arrival of settlers, and in many cases still do call it home.
For more information on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada click here.
