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Michel Tremblay Writer MICHEL TREMBLAY WRITER BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES The monumental work of Michel Tremblay—playwright, novelist, screenwriter, lyricist, translator—has its roots in Montreal’s Plateau Royal, but its reach has been truly international. In 1968, Michel Tremblay was 26 years old and still living with his parents. A nightshift linotype operator in a print shop and then a TV costume warehouseman, he had only one dream: to see one of his plays performed. His first work, Le train, won first prize in the 1964 CBC Young Writers’ competition, but was not staged. The following year, he wrote another play, Les Belles-Sœurs. Presented at a public reading in March 1968, this dramatic comedy based on a “stamp-pasting party” was chosen to open the 1968-1969 season of the Théâtre du Rideau-Vert, an institutional playhouse. And it sent shock waves through the theatre world. On stage: a kitchen and 15 women, directed by a very young André Brassard, an essential accomplice of the budding playwright in this mad adventure, and in many others to come. These women from a working-class neighbourhood take turns emptying their hearts and wringing their hands in joual, the popular spoken language that is spurned by conventional society. These women, whose voices have rarely been heard, are well-known to Michel Tremblay. He has long observed them, and has nothing but affection for them. They represent his mother, his aunts, his neighbours, who knew him as an infant and watched him grow up. They are his muses. In reaction to these “sisters-in-law,” some spectators spoke of genius, while others cried scandal and walked out before the play ended. Even those who expressed reservations found in the author a remarkable sense of observation and a rare gift for dialogue. The next day a leading critic predicted that Michel Tremblay had a future, "unless, of course, he continues to wallow in vulgarity and take paths that lead nowhere.” Nevertheless, the play was exported to Paris in 1973, where it ran for two weeks at the chic Espace Cardin—a first for a Canadian production in France. Its success surprised the Quebec Minister of Cultural Affairs at the time, who had refused to subsidize the trip because “he considered joual to be a cultural dead end, and that plays written in this dialect were of regional interest only” (Le Devoir). A half century later, Germaine Lauzon, Rose Ouimet, Marie-Ange Brouillette and the other sisters-in-law have travelled far and wide. Translated into 25 languages, including Yiddish and Mòoré (spoken in Burkina Faso), the play has been Curriculum vitae MICHEL TREMBLAY Updated May 14th 2021 1 performed the world over. “Reinvented” as a musical by René Richard Cyr and Daniel Bélanger in 2010, this seminal work continues to enchant audiences everywhere it plays. In Quebec, in France—and even in Brazil, in a sung Portuguese version (As comadres) presented in Rio de Janeiro by the celebrated Ariane Mnouchkine, for whom Les Belles-Sœurs “is a masterpiece.” Michel Tremblay is far from a one-hit wonder, however famous and celebrated that play may be. Propelled by Les Belles- Sœurs, his career as a playwright, which continues today, is filled with crowning moments, with powerful works that have stood the test of time, that are in the topmost tier of the Quebec repertory. Plays such as À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou / Forever Yours, Marie-Lou (1971), Bonjour, là, bonjour / Hello There, Hello (1974), Sainte Carmen de la Main / Sainte Carmen of the Main (1976), Albertine, en cinq temps /Albertine in Five Times (1983), and Le vrai monde? / The Real World? (1987), to name but a few, are regularly staged both in Quebec and abroad. His autobiographical Encore une fois, si vous le permettez (For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again), a touching and endearing tribute from a son to his mother, staged in Montreal in 1998, has been performed in English from Dublin to Singapore. In San Francisco, in a 1,200-seat theatre, the role of Nana was played by the late Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis. Now approaching his eighties, Michel Tremblay has not yet written his last word. His 40th play, Coronavarius, written in the midst of the pandemic and broadcast as a radio play on Ici Première in December 2020, is now available as a podcast. And not only is the playwright still active, but the writer as well. His novels form an integral part of his creative achievements. Launched in 1978, Les chroniques du Plateau Mont-Roya (Plateau Mont-Royal Chronicles) comprises six volumes. Nearly twenty years separate the first publication, La grosse femme d'à côté est enceinte (The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant) from the last, Un objet de beauté (A Thing of Beauty). Published in 2000 in an imposing 1,100-page omnibus (Leméac/Actes Sud), this saga of the now-mythical Montreal family begins on May 2, 1943 and ends in 1963. Between these two dates, many of the colourful characters first encountered in Les Belles-Sœurs cycle grow up, live and sometimes die: Thérèse, Pierrette, Albertine, Marcel, Édouard, Nana and, of course, Jean-Marc, the author's avowed alter ego. Every fall, “the new Tremblay” arrives in bookshops. Sometimes it is a collection of stories (Un ange cornu avec des ailes de tôle, Bonbons assortis / Assorted Candies for the Theatre). Other times, it is the unexpected but hoped-for continuation of a story begun many years earlier. Thus, Jean-Marc and Mathieu, the protagonists of the “romance novel” Le cœur découvert / The Heart Laid Bare (1986), return in Le cœur éclaté / The Heart Broken (1993), and again in Hôtel Bristol, New York, N.Y. (1995). Always happy to explore other literary avenues (he was a lyricist for Pauline Julien, translator of Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee, librettist for the opera Nelligan), Michel Tremblay has also adapted Le cœur découvert for television: once for a television film in 1986, and a second time for a soap opera in 2000. The playwright and novelist had already made his debut as a screenwriter in 1972, with Françoise Durocher, waitress, a powerful short film. Two years later, Michel Tremblay arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with his first feature film. Co-written by André Brassard, the director and his lifelong collaborator, Il était une fois dans l’est… was in the official competition, alongside works by Spielberg, Fassbinder, Pasolini, Altman, Resnais and Coppola. Curriculum vitae MICHEL TREMBLAY Updated May 14th 2021 2 The Quebec duo’s film was not among the winning films (nor was Fassbinder’s, Resnais’ or Altman’s), which was of little consequence: Michel Tremblay no longer knows how many awards he has collected over the decades (86 in all, as of today). Trophies, medals, decorations, awards... the list is long and includes Félixes and Junos. Some awards have come in different guises. In 1987, the French magazine Lire added Les Belles-Sœurs to its Selections for an Ideal Library. In 1992, as part of a contest organized for the 350th anniversary of Montreal, Michel Tremblay was named “the most beloved author of Montrealers.” More recently, in 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Prince Pierre de Monaco Literary Prize for the body of his work. Like Françoise Sagan, Eugène Ionesco, Marguerite Yourcenar and Nobel Prize-winning author J.M.G. Le Clézio before him. Curriculum vitae MICHEL TREMBLAY Updated May 14th 2021 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Collections – Cycles, Chronicles 6 Plays, Scripts, Musicals — Theatrical adaptations of his own work — Opera — Song cycle — Symphonic Christmas Tale 10 Novels – Collections, Thesaurus – Autobiographical stories – Collection of tales – Tales, Short stories, Various publications – Contributions to other publications 16 Films – TV films – TV series – Script consultant – Works adapted for theatre – Stage direction 21 Translations and adaptations 24 Songs 28 Honorary Doctorates 35 Awards and Honours 36 Works adapted for TV, cinema, theatre and radio 42 Productions 54 Productions – translations and adaptations 161 Re-editions 169 International translation of plays (by languages) 177 International translation of plays (by plays) 192 International translations of novels and stories (by languages) 204 International translations of novels and stories (by works) 208 Documentaries, Films, Interviews 212 Some studies and writings on his work 214 Live recording of plays 217 Curriculum vitae MICHEL TREMBLAY Updated May 14th 2021 4 COLLECTIONS – CYCLES, CHRONICLES THE BELLES-SŒURS CYCLE 1968 Les belles-soeurs 1969 En pièces détachées 1969 Trois petits tours… – triptych made up of Berthe; Johnny Mangano; Gloria Star 1969 La Duchesse de Langeais 1970 Demain matin, Montréal m’attend –Musical 1971 À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou Forever Yours, Marie-Lou Yours Forever, Marie-Lou 1973 Hosanna 1974 Bonjour, là, bonjour 1975 Surprise! Surprise! 1976 Sainte Carmen de la Main Sainte Carmen of the Main 1977 Damnée Manon, sacrée Sandra OTHER PLAYS 1980 L’impromptu d’Outremont The Impromptu of Outremont 1981 Les anciennes odeurs Remember Me 2012 L’oratorio de Noël Curriculum vitae MICHEL TREMBLAY Updated May 14th 2021 5 COLLECTIONS – CYCLES, CHRONICLES (cntd) THE SECOND BELLES-SŒURS CYCLE 1984 Albertine, en cinq temps Albertine in Five Times 1987 Le vrai monde? The Real World? 1990 La maison suspendue 1992 Marcel poursuivi par les chiens Marcel Pursued by the Hounds 1996 Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d’été Solemn Mass for a Full-Moon in Summer 1998 Encore une fois, si vous permettez For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again 2003 Le passé antérieur The Past Perfect 2003 Impératif présent The Driving Force 2008 Le paradis à
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