≈ 1 hour and 55 minutes · No intermission
Annabel Soutar is a Montreal-based playwright and theatre producer. In 2000, she co-founded, with Alex Ivanovici, Porte Parole Productions whose mission is to produce entertaining documentary plays which create a transformational sense of civic engagement in its audiences. Annabel studied Theatre at Princeton University. Since 1998, she has written eight plays including Seeds, Sexy béton, The Watershed and Fredy. In 2015, The Globe and Mail named Soutar on its list of Artists of the Year. The Assembly, her recent collaboration with co-writers Alex Ivanovici and Brett Watson, will tour in the U.S., Europe and South America in 2020–23.
After graduating in 2006 from the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec, Édith Patenaude immediately launched herself into creating new work. With Les Écornifleuses theatre company, where she is the artistic director, she performed in Cinq filles avec la même robe, Les Reines, and the Le Désordre station of the ambulatory performance piece Où tu vas quand tu dors en marchant…? — the latter two were presented at the Carrefour international de théâtre in Québec; wrote and performed in Barbe Bleue; co-wrote (with Jocelyn Pelletier) Disparaître Ici, loosely based on the works of Bret Easton Ellis, presented at Théâtre Périscope and La Chapelle; and wrote, directed and performed in Le monde sera meilleur at Périscope. She also directed David Hare’s L’Absence de guerre (The Absence of War), which was remounted by Théâtre du Trident and La Licorne and won the Quebec Ministry of Arts and Culture award for Best Direction. She has performed in numerous productions by other companies (Trident, Bordée, Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, Espace Libre, etc.), notably in Thérèse et Pierrette à l’école des Saints-Anges, Inès Pérée et Inat Tendu, Selfie, Tout ce qui tombe and Scalpés. She also participated in the creation of iShow, winner of the Critics’ Choice award for Best Production – Montreal and widely presented in Canada and France. From 2012 to 2015, she was the artistic director of the Québec edition of the Jamais Lu new play festival. She directed the remount of Mes enfants n’ont pas peur du noir at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, and the stage adaptation of the cult novel 1984, coproduced by Théâtre du Trident and Théâtre Denise-Pelletier. At Zones Théâtrales 2017, she is directing Far Away.
Montreal-born bilingual actress Natalie Tannous is known for her work on stage and on screen. Mama, in which she portrayed the eccentric, emotional pill-pusher Mado, got her the Prix Première Fois from Théâtre Duceppe’s 2022 season. Natalie was on stage in Birthmark, Province, Refuge (in Halifax), State of Denial, and The Baklawa Recipe at Centaur Theatre for which she was nominated as Best Female Lead at the METAs 2018 Montreal awards. In 2023, she played Michelle, an uptight, alcoholic vegan veterinary in Centaur’s AlterNatives. She was also part of the French Canadian Tour of that same production: AlterIndiens in 2024. Her talent was also noticed in the music video Water by De.Ville, for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the Prisma Rome Independent Film Awards, and the web series Rima et Jacob, for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Film in Focus International Film Festival. On screen, you can see her in Antigone, Les chambres rouges, Montreal Girls, Broken Waters, La face cachée du baklava, Le dernier repas, Le ventre de Bassima, La Candidate, L’Empereur, Sorcières and Hôtel Beyrouth -which is planned to air in Fall 2024- to name a few credits. She is excited to be at the National Arts Centre for the first time in the English premiere of Rose in the Machine.
Since graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting program, Julie has been seen performing in French and in English on stages across the country. She is a two times Jessie Richardson Awards winner (Outstanding performance and Outstanding performance by an actress in a supporting role) and a META award winner (Outstanding Ensemble). This is her second time performing on the NAC stage but the first time she does so in English. Past credits include Straight Jacket Winter also directed by Édith Patenaude, coproduced by Théâtre Français du Centre national des arts, Théâtre la Seizième and Production 2PAR4, Baking Time and Listen to me! produced by Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver, Des fraises en janvier, Deux ans de votre vie, Selfie and À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou produced by Théâtre la Seizième in Vancouver and Clean Slate by Talisman Theatre in Montréal. Julie also works in film and television; Quebec audiences will recognize her as Kim Nolin in the very popular legal drama Indéfendable.