Gaston Talbot, a Francophone from Chicoutimi, wakes up one day to find he has turned into an Anglophone. “I travel a lot,” announces the dragonfly just before he takes flight. A childhood trauma left him unable to speak – until a bizarre dream released him from his long silence, and he is now on stage, introducing himself, describing his dream and sharing his life story. His motto: “TO KEEP IN TOUCH.” Constantly revising and correcting his narrative, he runs aground on the very spot where it all began: his home town, whose Aboriginal name means “up to where the water is deep.”

The second play in the National Arts Centre (NAC) French Theatre’s 2011–12 season, this modern classic of Quebec theatre caused a sensation when it premiered in 1995 with the late Jean-Louis Millette in the title role. It is unusual enough for a Francophone playwright – in this case, Larry Tremblay – to write a play in English. But, as the audience soon realizes, Gaston doesn’t really speak English, but rather French expressed in English words.

Gaston Talbot paints an ever-shifting portrait, like a reflection on moving water: the blurred image of a character disfigured by the currents of an identity that is (suffering from a) complex. With trembling hands he turns the mirror to his audience, with the inescapable admission that “the truth is not easy to catch.”

Director Claude Poissant (who directed the NAC’s March 2009 presentation of Jonathan Harnois’ Je voudrais me déposer la tête) has transformed The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, originally a monologue, into a work for five voices. Dany Boudreault, Patrice Dubois, Daniel Parent, Étienne Pilon and Mani Soleymanlou become five incarnations of a flawed hero whose single presence conjures up an entire country.

MORAL

Cultural or sexual identity is no burden
When it is part of a shining whole,
But if either is weak or shameful in the eyes of others
You reject it, you make fun of it and you stifle it.
However, no mask can hide pain and confusion forever,
And in the end, like it or not, you end up revealing
Your profound sense of loss, alienation and distress.

Larry Tremblay is a writer, director, actor and specialist in Kathakali, a classical East Indian form of dance-drama he has studied on numerous trips to India. He has published some 20 works, ranging from plays and novels to poetry anthologies and essay collections. Thanks to an uninterrupted succession of new plays (Leçon d’anatomie, Ogre, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, Le Génie de la rue Drolet, Les Mains bleues, Téléroman, Cornemuse, Le Ventriloque, Panda panda, L’Histoire d’un cœur), he has achieved recognition both across Quebec and internationally. His plays have been translated into over a dozen languages and produced in several countries.

Claude Poissant is the co-artistic director and general manager of Théâtre PÀP (Petit à Petit), the Montreal-based contemporary theatre company he co-founded in 1978. A leading centre for dramatic innovation and exploration, PÀP has premiered such highlights of the Quebec dramatic repertoire as Michel Marc Bouchard’s Les Feluettes (Lilies), François Archambault’s Cul sec, and Serge Boucher’s Motel Hélène, and introduced audiences to contemporary voices from Quebec and abroad, including Étienne Lepage (Rouge gueule), David Paquet (Porc-épic), Kobo Abe (Les Amis/Friends), and Martin Crimp (Le Traitement/The Treatment). Claude Poissant’s directing credits include François Létourneau’s Stampede, Reynald Robinson’s L’Hôtel des horizons, and Kevin Kerr’s Unity, mil neuf cent dix?huit (presented at the NAC in March 2003), as well as the most recent edition (June 2011) of the NAC French Theatre Lab.

This production of The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi marks Larry Tremblay and Claude Poissant’s third collaboration, after Le Ventriloque (winner of the Masque award for Best Montreal Production, 2001–02) and Abraham Lincoln va au théâtre (spring 2008).

“The play easily meets the challenge, which consists essentially in expressing, in a tangible way, the intimate and collective nature of tragedy, the importance of language and cultural identity in an age of homogenization and compromise.”

Christian Saint-Pierre, Voir

Written by
Larry Tremblay

Directed by
CLAUDE POISSANT

Assistant Director, Control Room and Tour Director
CATHERINE LA FRENIÈRE

With

DANY BOUDREAULT, PATRICE DUBOIS, DANIEL PARENT, ÉTIENNE PILON and MANI SOLEYMANLOU

Stage Design
OLIVIER LANDREVILLE

Sound Design
ÉRIC FORGET

Costumes
MARIE-CHANTALE VAILLANCOURT

Lightning Design
ERWANN BERNARD

Accessories
DAVID OUELLET

Movement
CAROLINE LAURIN-BEAUCAGE

Make-up Artist
FLORENCE CORNET

Language Coach
MARYSE WARDA

Technical Director on tour
Judith Saint-Pierre

Produced by
THÉÂTRE PÀP, and coproduced by
FESTIVAL TRANSAMÉRIQUES

Original Technical Director
VINCENT ROUSSELLE

Soundtrack
Olivier Gaudet-Savard

Set Construction
PRODUCTIONS YVES NICOL INC.

Project Manager
BENOIT FRENIÈRE

Sheen
LONGUE VUE PEINTURE SCÉNIQUE

Project Manager
YVES ROCHON

Curtain Design
JD INTERNATIONAL INC.

 

Length
1:15 with no intermission

NAC STUDIO
53 Elgin, Ottawa

Tickets
Adults: $34.98
Students: $18.99
Live Rush: $12

NAC Box Office
(Monday to Saturday, 10am to 9pm)
www.nac-cna.ca

Ticketmaster
1-888-991-2787

Groups (10 persons or more)
613-947-7000, ext. 634
grp@nac-cna.ca

Subcriptions
613-947-7000, ext. 620

 

Sylvain Lavoie
Communications Officer
French Theatre
National Arts Centre
tel.: 613-947-7000 ext 396
tool free: 1-866-850-2787 ext 396
cell.: 613-979-2636
sylvain.lavoie@nac-cna.ca