FRENCH THEATRE
A spotlight on productions
The francophone fall theatre season is already up and running. Here is a necessarily incomplete look at a wealth of productions, which includes several adaptations of literary classics and reinterpretations of modern Québécois classics, as well as two epic plays marking the anniversary of the 2008 financial crash.
Picking themselves up after the ugly events of the SLAV controversy over summer, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (84 Ste-Catherine St. W.) recently reopened with Pierre Yves Lemieux’s adaptation of the 18th-century “best of all possible worlds” satire Candide (continuing through Oct. 6), which sees the excellent Emmanuel Schwartz playing Voltaire. (514-866-8668; tnm.qc.ca)
Another satirical classic, Rabelais’s Pantagruel, gets a modern makeover from Gabriel Plante. Paul Ahmarani stars in the gloriously grotesque 16th-century classic about a utopian existence eked out in the belly of a giant beast. Prouesses et épouvantables digestions du redouté Pantagruel plays at Théâtre DenisePelletier (4353 Ste-Catherine St. E.) from Sept. 26 to Oct. 20. (514-253-8974; denise-pelletier. qc.ca)
Plante serves up another radical adaptation at La Chapelle (3700 St-Dominique St.) with Le Cid, Corneille’s 11th-century tale of a Christian knight and his battles against the Moors. It plays from Oct. 10 to 19. (514843-7738; lachapelle.org)
A more modern classic can be seen at Théâtre Jean-Duceppe of Place des Arts as John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is adapted by Jean-Philippe Lehoux. Steinbeck’s Depression-era story about the doomed friendship between two mismatched migrants plays from Oct. 24 to Dec. 1 and stars Benoît McGinnis. Playing at the Duceppe right now is J.T. Rogers’s recent Oslo (to Oct. 13), a fascinating and surprisingly funny play about the fraught 1993 negotiations between representatives of the PLO and the Israeli government. Emmanuel Bilodeau and Isabelle Blais play the long-suffering Norwegian diplomats tasked with keeping a lid on things. (514-8422112; duceppe.com)
New productions from visionary director Angela Konrad are always worth keeping an eye out for, and she and her company, La Fabrik, have two intriguing-looking shows playing this season. Her adaptation of Chekhov’s early, often overlooked play Platonov is at Théâtre Prospero (1371 Ontario St. E.) from Nov. 20 to Dec. 15. Chekhov’s tragicomedy of a philandering schoolteacher is reimagined as a reconstruction of a crime of passion against a background of fiery revolutionary thought. (514-5266582; theatreprospero.com)
Earlier in the season, Konrad tackles Argentinian playwright Rodrigo García’s hugely controversial Golgotha Picnic, a modern take on the Crucifixion; it plays from Sept. 18 to 29 at Usine C, 1345 Lalonde Ave. (514-5214493; usine-c.com)
When Golgotha Picnic played in Europe recently, it attracted legions of Christian protesters, as did Denise Boucher’s Les fées ont soif when it played at TNM in 1978. As part of a season entirely directed by women, Théâtre du Rideau Vert (4664 St-Denis St.) is remounting the play in which three female characters — a prostitute, the Virgin Mary and a housewife — fight to break out of their prescribed roles. Directed by Sophie Clément, it plays from Sept. 25 to Oct. 27. (514-8441793; rideauvert.qc.ca)
There are two revivals of Marcel Dubé plays on the way. Dubé died in 2016. At TNM, there’s his 50-year-old Bilan (Nov. 13 to Dec. 8), a Duplessis-era family drama that is given modern relevance by the fact that it’s about a monstrous businessman’s entry into politics. And over at La Chapelle, Dubé’s 1965 play Les beaux dimanches gets a typically radical reinterpretation from director Christian Lapointe who, working with students from the National Theatre School, brings its exploration of postparty apathy up to date. It plays from Dec. 6 to 15. Lapointe also scores a coup with the Canadian première of a new play from celebrated Brit playwright Martin Crimp. Le reste vous le connaissez par la cinéma is an eccentric riff on Euripides’s continuation of the Oedipus saga, The Phoenician Women. It’s playing at Espace Go (4890 St-Laurent Blvd.) till Oct. 6. (514-845-4890; espacego.com)
The season wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from Michel Tremblay, and there are two of his vintage plays heading our way. The 50th anniversary of Les Belles- Soeurs is marked by a new version of the musical by René Richard Cyr and Daniel Bélanger and plays from Oct. 17 to 27 at Théâtre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts. (514-842-2112; placedesarts.com.) Tremblay’s early-’70s play Bonjour, Là, Bonjour, about a young man returning from Europe to his stifling Québécois family, plays from Nov. 7 to Dec. 5 at Théâtre Denise-Pelletier.
Two productions mark the 10th anniversary of the 2008 Crash in epic style. Chapitres de la chute (Oct. 16 to Nov. 3 at Théâtre de Quat’sous, 100 des Pins Ave. E.) covers 16 decades in four hours, from the immigration of the Lehman brothers into New York in 1844, to the fall of their empire in 2008.
Written by Stefano Massini, whose Intractable Woman was produced by Imago Theatre last year, it played as the Lehman Trilogy at London’s National Theatre over summer. (514-8457277; quatsous.com)
Eight writers got together to create the L’art du chute (around half of which is in English) which premièred in Quebec City last year and is playing to Sept. 29 at La Licorne (4559 Papineau Ave.). It documents the events of the Crash and examines a romance betweealso n a Quebec artist and a London trader. (514-5232246; theatrelalicorne.com)
Other promising shows in this packed season include Dans le champ amoureux (Sept. 25 to Oct. 6 at Espace Libre, 1945 Fullum St.), the second play from Catherine Chabot, whose big hit Table rase gets an English production next year from Talisman Theatre; Lévrieres, Nervous Hunter’s new show which hears from six people from diverse backgrounds about how they remade their lives in Montreal (Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 at MAI, 3680 Jeanne-Mance St.); Okinum, a one-woman dream play by First Nations artist Émilie Monnet, performed in French, English and Anishinaabemowin (Oct. 2 to 20 at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, 3900 St-Denis St.); and Fiel, a new multimedia piece by Marilyn Perrault and Théâtre I.N.K. that follows the aftermath of a nightmarish student party (Oct. 9 to 27 at Théâtre Aux Écuries, 7285 Chabot St.).