PL AYBILL YOURS FOREVER, MARIE-LOU
YOURS FOREVER, MARIE-LOU MICHEL TREMBLAY TRANSLATED BY LINDA GABORIAU }{
approximate running time: 1 hour 20 minutes. there will be no intermission
ARTIST NOTE: DIANA LEBLANC In 1970, Michel Tremblay attended a concert at Lincoln Center in New York, where he heard a Brahms quartet. He returned to his room at The Chelsea Hotel and, in 11 days, wrote À toi pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou. A masterpiece. Its intricate musicality and the interplay of voices create a tragedy with universal resonance out of one Québec family’s despair. The delicate balance between the domestic situation, and the transcendence achieved by the author’s revolutionary use of “joual” a mispronunciation of the word “cheval” which means horse, is breathtaking. Joual is the colloquial French spoken in some parts of Québec, and a challenge to capture in another language, as you can imagine. Linda Gaboriau’s translation is finely tuned and in tune. It captures the spare elegance of the original and does justice to its sophisticated dramatic structure and its vitriolic attack on the family. “I want to put a bomb in the family cell,” said Tremblay. This play is not about two solitudes, it is about four solitudes.
I wanted actors who were familiar with the pulse, the heartbeat, of this oddly poetic language. I wanted a look that revealed the genesis of that catastrophic Saturday morning in 1960, and revealed its consequences in 1971. I wanted sounds that started out vividly real and then blossomed into fragments of memory, longing, nightmare. The English Hit Parade in French, a French play in English... I got all of that, and I thank the colleagues I have been working with. Our rehearsal hall has been a happy place.
Diana Leblanc, Director of Yours Forever, Marie-Lou
CREATIVE TEAM
YOURS FOREVER, MARIE-LOU
CAS T
Geneviève Dufour Manon
Patricia Marceau Marie-Lou
Christian Laurin Léopold
Suzanne Roberts Smith Carmen
Production
Diana Leblanc Director
Kimberly Purtell Lighting Designer
Kelly McEvenue Alexander Coach
Glen Charles Landry Set Designer
Todd Charlton Sound Designer
Sarah Miller Production Stage Manager
Melanie McNeill Costume Designer
John Stead Fight Director
Emily Mewett Assistant Stage Manager
Jacqueline Robertson-Cull Head of Hair & Makeup
Barbara Nowakowski First Hand
Tracey Taylor Props Buyer
Marlee Bygate Geoff Hughes Cutters
Emma Zulkoskey Dresser
Paul Boddum Scenic Painter
SOULPEPPER PRODUC T ION
Kiyomi Hidaka Sewer
Greg Chambers Props Builder
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cover illustration: the heads of state.
BACKGROUND NOTES
M
ichel Tremblay could be called the Balzac of the 20th century. He is certainly the most produced playwright in Canada. Born in Montréal and raised in the working class Plateau district, he spent his formative years in a cramped apartment with 12 mostly female relatives. This was the mother ground of creative inspiration for his writing. He’s been a theatrical force since the appearance of Les Belles Soeurs in his early 20’s. It premiered in 1968 to scandal. Frank discussion of the lives of working class women? Characters who speak exclusively in the poetic joual of francophone Montréal? At that time? Revolutionary. More than 30 plays (and 30 novels) later, Tremblay’s still creating. Forever Yours, Marie-Lou, a raw exploration of a fractured family, defines an era for Tremblay: “In the ‘70s I talked about disguising yourself. Wanting to be somebody but not having the courage to be who and what you are.” All four characters grapple with that and with their cultural and sexual identities. The only thing this seething family does well together is fight. And yet, Tremblay’s genius also reveals the frustrated hopes, longing and crushed dreams that fuel their acrimony.
the greatest translator in Canada. Her long relationship with the playwright, and with the French language, ensures that this version is both true to the original and perfectly contemporary. After all, confronting your family history never goes out of style, does it?
Playwright Biography Michel Tremblay was born in 1942 of mixed French, American and Cree ancestry. He has been awarded the Governor General’s Award for the Arts, the Prix David from Québec, and a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France. He divides his time between Montréal and Key West, producing at least one new play or novel every year.
TRANSLATOR Biography Linda Gaboriau has translated more than 100 plays. Twice a winner of the Governor General’s Award for Literary Translation, this year she was named a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her huge contributions to our literary landscape.
In their native French, Tremblay’s plays can feel dated because the language remains fixed in the idioms of the 1960s. Fortunately, translation can update and revitalize things. In Linda Gaboriau, Tremblay (and his audiences) have arguably
Tidbits & Background Notes by 2015 Soulpepper Resident Artist Paula Wing
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