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. 31 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
ANTIGONE IN THE SPRING
By Nathalie Boisvert | Translated by Hugh Hazelton
Translated from Antiogone au printemps (Quebec, Canada)
“The Antigone of Nathalie Boisvert’s beautiful text is so close to us…It’s impossible not to feel the contemporary resonance.” – Sorstu.ca
In this contemporary reimagining of Antigone, in a Montreal of now and myth, birds fall from the sky in the thousands and rot under the sun of an early spring. Antigone and her two brothers, Étéocle and Polynice, are swept up in the popular revolution rumbling through the city. Each must chooses a side. During a riot, the two brothers clash and kill each other. Polynice’s body becomes evidence to incriminate the protesters. How can Antigone, despite all the obstacles, escape the fury of power? In times of unrest, how do you stay whole, and true?
Antigone au printemps was first produced in 2017 (Théâtre Fred-Barry) in Montreal by Le Dôme créations théâtrales, directed by Frédéric Sasseville-Painchaud. It received the Prix Émilie Augier from the Académie Française; and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for French Language Drama. In May 2019, it received a dramatic reading at the Teamtheatre Global Quebec event in Munich, Germany.
The professional performers/readers for ANTIGONE IN THE SPRING are: Lewis Bruniges; Rebecca Lee and Joseph Reed.
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
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.
About the translator
Hugh Hazelton
Hugh Hazelton (he, him) is a Montreal writer and translator who specializes in Quebec and Latin American literature. He has written four books of poetry, including Antimatter (Broken Jaw Press, 2nd edition, with CD, 2010), as well as Latinocanadá: A Critical Study of Ten Latin American Writers of Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007), which received the Best Book of the Year award from the Canadian Association of Hispanists. He has translated twenty works of poetry, theatre and fiction from French, Spanish and Portuguese into English. His latest translations are Volume I of the complete works of the Argentine avant-garde poet Oliverio Girondo (Wolsak & Wynn, 2018), and The Doorman of Windsor Station, a play by Julie Vincent (Playwrights Canada Press, 2017). His translation of Vétiver, a book of poems by Joël Des Rosiers, won the Governor General’s award for French-English translation in 2006. He is a professor emeritus of Spanish at Concordia University in Montreal and former co-director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. In 2016 he received the Linda Garboriau Award from the Banff Centre for his work on behalf of literary translation in Canada, and in 2018 he was awarded the Prix de poésie Lèvres urbaines by Les Écrits des Forges for his dedication to the advancement of poetry. He is an honorary member of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada.
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.