≈ 1 hour · No intermission
Last updated: November 23, 2020
The North haunts me
I close my eyes and I hear the roar of an approaching train, I feel the cold on my face, I see a No Vacancy sign at the edge of the Trans-Canada Highway on a January night It’s snowing The wind is blowing hard
The North provokes me
I breathe better or more deeply The sky is vast The forest too and so much darker than the Laurentian but maybe it’s an illusion The rivers for instance are darker and wilder I’d swear to it
And the people too
Darker and vaster taller and blunter It’s probably an illusion but so what Their flaws speak to me Their obsessions hates humiliations Their jealousies too
They inhabit me
And I make fiction out of them
Partir ou rester
by Ariane Brun del Re
Thirty years after writing Le chien, which earned him his first Governor General’s Literary Award (of three!), Jean Marc Dalpé revisits these themes in La Queens, his latest play, which premiered on January 15, 2019 at the Théâtre La Licorne in Montréal and was published the same year by Éditions Prise de parole in Sudbury.
Two places that embody the main poles of the Ottawa-born playwright’s fictional universe and of his professional career, which took him to Northern Ontario—a space made mythical in part by his work—in the 1980s and then, nearly a decade later, to the Quebec metropolis. Read more
Marie-Élizabeth
Le Nord est une supercherie.
Il n’y a pas d’avenir dans le Nord.
Il n’y a jamais eu d’avenir dans le Nord.
Tout ce qu’il y a dans le Nord, ce sont des mouches noires et des moustiques, ce sont des arbres rachitiques qu’on coupe pour le Sud et des tonnes de minerai qu’on extrait du sol pour le Sud
Que nos grands-parents Maman Papa ont cru autrement n’est pas une chose à célébrer mais quelque chose qu’on devrait enterrer.
Sophie
Et oublier?
– JEAN MARC DALPÉ
Extract from La Queens, published by Éditions Prise de parole
It’s Jean Marc Dalpé’s fault
by Stéphanie Nutting
It’s his fault that I took the biggest risk of my life.
There were 15 of us gathered in a room under harsh fluorescent lights; everyone was tense, especially me. It smelled like burnt coffee and dirty carpeting. This interview, for an academic position, was going to determine the course of my life. I was supposed to give a lecture on Quebec theatre, but I had decided to talk about a Franco-Ontarian playwright.
I talked about parricide, about a Francophone Oedipus dressed in a leather jacket and reincarnated in a village in Ontario. I talked about fatality, and madness, and the merciless cadence of words. Read more
Artists
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Playwright, novelist, poet, screenwriter and actor Jean Marc Dalpé is a three-time recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award: for his play Le Chien in 1988, for his anthology of plays Il n’y a que l’amour in 1999, and for his debut novel Un vent se lève qui éparpille (published in English as Scattered in a Rising Wind) in 2000. Over the years, he has translated works by several contemporary authors as well as classics by Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht. He has also written stage adaptations of such works as the last chapter of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses (Molly Bloom) and Marta Hillers’ memoir A Woman in Berlin. He recently appeared in Mansel Robinson’s play Deux (Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario) and Gilles Poulin-Denis’s Dehors (Hôtel-Motel), and over the winter he toured western Canada with Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show, which he co-wrote with nine other writers (French, English, and Indigenous) and co-artistic directed. He holds two honorary doctorates for his body of work, from Laurentian University and the University of Ottawa. His latest play, La Queens’, premiered in January 2019 at Montreal’s Théâtre La Licorne, directed by Fernand Rainville.
Soon after graduating from the National Theatre School in 1988, Dominique Quesnel was cast in the original production of Michel Marc Bouchard’s Les Muses orphelines, directed by André Brassard. This was followed by a dozen collaborations with René Richard Cyr: from Frank Wedekind’s L’éveil du printemps (1989) to Michel Tremblay’s musical Belles-Sœurs (2010–13). Claude Poissant, Éric Jean, Philippe Lambert, Philippe Cyr and Denis Marleau are some of the directors with whom she has had the pleasure of working. Her encounter in 2007 with playwright and director Angela Konrad led to numerous productions, including Audition ou Me, Myself and I (a variation on Shakespeare’s Richard III), Michel Garneau’s translation of Macbeth, and Golgotha Picnic by Rodrigo Garcia.
Dominique Quesnel has made several appearances at La Manufacture. In 2004, she was seen in Hilary Fannin’s Doldrum Bay, then in Mark O’Rowe’sTête première (Crestfall, 2005–08) and Stephen Greenhorn’s Les points tournants (Passing Places, 2006–09), on tour in Quebec and Canada. Her first appearance at La Licorne, however, dates back to 1992 in the now legendary collective work Cabaret neiges noires, directed by her National Theatre School classmate Dominic Champagne.
On television, she appeared in Chantal Cadieux’s Mémoires vives for over five seasons. Film roles include Claudine in Le torrent, directed by Simon Lavoie.
Since the fall of 2018, she has been performing the songs of the great Leonard Cohen in the tribute show Hallelujah Leonard, alongside musicians Claude Fradette and Simon Dolan.
Shortly after graduating from the National Theatre School in 1996, David Boutin began his association with Wajdi Mouawad, who directed him in Trainspotting, Willy Protagoras enfermé dans les toilette sand Littoral. He touched on the classical repertoire, appearing in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1998) before playing the title role in Molière’s Dom Juan (2000) at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. As his career took off, he appeared in Larry Tremblay’s Cornemuse, Frédéric Blanchette’s Le périmètre, Évelyne de la Chenelière’s L’imposture and Victor Hugo’s Marie Tudor, and worked notably with directors Claude Poissant, Denis Marleau and Serge Denoncourt.
His first appearance at La Manufacture was in 1999, in Trick or Treat by Jean Marc Dalpé, directed by Fernand Rainville. He subsequently appeared in Gregory Burke’s Gagarin Way (2003–06, presented at the NAC French Theatre in March 2006) and Martin McDonagh’s Le Pillowman (2009), remounted at the Rideau Vert in 2011. In 2016, he returned to the world of Dalpé in the stage adaptation of the novel Un vent se lève qui éparpille (published in English as Scattered in a Rising Wind), directed by Geneviève Pineault and presented by the NAC French Theatre. The following year, he appeared in Catherine Léger’s Baby-sitter.
David Boutin has appeared in a host of television series, including Bunker, Temps dur, Rumeurs, Tout sur moi, Le gentleman, Nouvelle adresse, District 31 and Faits divers.
His film credits include Michel Jetté’s Hochelaga (for which he won a Jutra), Jean-François Pouliot’s La grande séduction, Wajdi Mouawad’s Littoral, Yan England’s 1:54, Louis Choquette’s La ligne brisée, Benoît Pilon’s Décharge and Éric Tessier’s Tu te souviendra de moi, adapted from François Archambault’s play of the same name.
A 1982 graduate of the Conservatoire d’art dramatique du Québec, Marie-Thérèse Fortin made her stage debut in Quebec City. From Michel Tremblay’s Sainte-Carmen de la Main (1993) to Racine’s Andromaque (1998), she has played many roles—directed by Denis Bernard, Serge Denoncourt and Wajdi Mouawad, among others—and was artistic director of the Théâtre du Trident from 1997 to 2003. Also in Quebec City, in 1995, she plunged into the world of Jean Marc Dalpé with the play Lucky Lady.
Artistic director of the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui between 2004 and 2012, she also pursued her acting career, and her performance in the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM)’s 2008 production of Timothy Findley’s Élizabeth, roi d’Angleterre (Elizabeth Rex) earned her the TNM’s Prix Gascon-Roux. From 2010 to 2014, she played Germaine Lauzon in Michel Tremblay’s musical Belles-Sœurs, directed by René Richard Cyr, and in 2013, she appeared in Jean Genet’s Le balcon. She recently returned to the Trident stage in La détresse et l’enchantement, a stage adaptation of Gabrielle Roy’s novel of the same name. La Queens marks her first collaboration with Théâtre de La Manufacture.
A Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France and a prominent figure in Quebec television, she has won several Prix Gémeaux, notably in 2013 and 2014 for her role in Mémoires vive sand in 2016 for her performance in Boomerang.
In film, she has appeared in Sophie Lorain’s Les grandes chaleurs, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette’s Inch’Allah, Bernard Émond’s Le journal d’un vieil homme and Philippe Lioret’s Le fils de Jean.
Originally from Burkina Faso, Hamidou Savadogo made his acting debut in Burkinabe cinema in 1990 and joined the Atelier Théâtre Burkinabé in Ouagadougou in 1993. Over time, he took various courses in acting, directing and improvisation, specializing in reading and performing children’s books that combine song, dance, music, masks and puppetry. He added storytelling, which has shaped and coloured his life since early childhood, to his professional skill set in 2001. His artistic journey has taken him from Burkina Faso to France by way of Mali and Norway.
Based in Quebec for more than a decade, he has given storytelling workshops in several schools in Montreal and across Quebec. On stage, he performed in the play L’étrangère by the Montréal theatre company Mythomanie (2010) and has displayed his storytelling talents in the young audience shows Un si long voyage (Productions Rhizome, Québec, 2009–11) and Le fascinant voyage de Mamadou (Théâtre le Petit Chaplin, Montréal, 2011–12).
On the small screen, he has appeared notably in Le gentleman III, 30 vies and Les jeunes loups.
In film, he has appeared in Denis Côté’s Que ta joie demeure and Boris sans Béatrice, Ryan McKenna’s Le cœur de Madame Sabali, and Wiebke von Carolsfeld’s The Saver.
After graduating from the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal in 2009, Alice Pascual appeared in the Théâtre de La Roulotte production of Les aventures de Lagardère, based on the novel by Paul Féval. Since then she has shone in nearly 15 plays, navigating with ease between different repertoires. In 2010, under the direction of Yves Desgagnés, she played Douniacha in Chekhov’s La cerisaie (The Cherry Orchard). She then appeared in Anja Hilling’s Tristesse animal noir (2012) and Fanny Britt’s Bienveillance (2014), both presented at ESPACE GO and directed by Claude Poissant, who also directed her in 2015 in On ne badine pas avec l’amour by Alfred de Musset at the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier. The same year, she appeared at the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in Annick Lefebvre’s J’accuse, remounted in 2017. In 2018, for the Théâtre Prospero, she played an elementary school teacher in the one-woman show Madame Catherine prépare sa classe de troisième à l’irrémédiable.
For La Manufacture, Alice Pascual stood out in 2012 for her performance in Ce moment(Moment) by Irish playwright Deirdre Kinahan, directed by Denis Bernard, and in 2016 in Marc O’Rowe’sTerminus, directed by Michel Monty. At La Licorne, she also appeared in Annabel Soutar’s Fredy (2016), produced by Porte Parole, and was part of the cast of Jonathan Garfinkel’s La maison aux 67 langues (House of Many Tongues), presented in the spring of 2019 and directed by Philippe Lambert.
Her television credits include Toute la vérité, Yamaska, 30 vies, Nouvelle adresse, and O’. She also appeared in the series Prémonition and in the popular series Trop, where she played the very likeable Manuela.
She has appeared in various short films screened at festivals (including Marie-Ève Juste’s Plage de sable and François Jaros’s Maurice), and more recently in Matt & Max, Xavier Dolan’s latest film.