SISTERS: THE BELLES SOEURS MUSICAL

A play about the Quiet Revolution in a loud musical adaptation.

1 Quiet Quebec French-Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay first wrote Les Belles-soeurs in 1965 when he was just 23. The play centres on a working-class housewife whose circumstances change for the better when she wins one million trading stamps. Pairing humour with socioeconomic context, the play was timely during Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. Despite that, however, it was repeatedly rejected by producers.

2 Premiere In 1968, three years after it was written, Les Belles-soeurs was finally delivered. Following a public reading by the Centre d’essai des auteurs dramatiques at the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, the play had its proper premiere at Théâtre du Rideau Vert in August. Critics declared it a masterpiece, and its first run sold out in just two days.

3 Found in Translation Though its dialogue and setting is decidedly Quebecois, the play’s themes and story have proven to be universal. “The play got translated into 10 million languages,” musical director David Terriault jokes. “The reason ... is that these characters can be from any city in the world.”

4 Adaptation Inception Further proving its versatility, the play was adapted into a French musical in 2010 by director René Richard Cyr and composer Daniel Bélanger, returning to Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui. According to Terriault, the play works as a musical because of the characters’ circumstances. “I feel like Les Belles-soeurs is such a scream from the heart, if I can say so,” he says. “It’s so profound, these ladies want to get out of this little misery world in a way, and they’re so jealous of each other…. I think these emotions, these feelings, these frustrations in a way can be transcribed into songs.”

5 Half a Century Having celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015, Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles-soeurs has proven itself to be a significant piece of Canadian art. As part of its half-century celebrations, the English musical adaptation of the play will have its Western Canadian premiere at Theatre Calgary. “There’s a new wave of amazing Canadian theatre,” Terriault says. “I feel this is a perfect example of what’s happening these days.” —Josiah Hughes