Find large cast plays by Canadian women, two-spirit, trans, and non-binary creators.
Written by: Marie-Christine Lê-Huu, translated by Crystal Beliveau
Genre: Drama, Quebec Theatre, Translation
“Jouliks is a darkly tender drama exploring the vast, bumpy, and treacherous terrain of love. The brilliant lights it projects on this terrain are harsh and terrible, yet, at the same time, they often stir gentle smiles of complicity, as they are refracted through the eyes and voice of a seven-year-old... Written by: Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf, translated by Crystal Beliveau
Genre: Quebec Theatre, Translation
“Chinese Portrait of an Imposter (Portrait chinois d’une imposteure) is a play with a prologue, eight scenes, and an epilogue, having seven characters on stage and the insistent voices of five additional characters. During her initial session with the makeup artist in preparation for her first television appearance, Candice hears... Written by: Evelyne de la Chenelière, translated by Morwyn Brebner
Genre: Quebec Theatre, Translation
“The character who serves as the focal point in Public Disorder is a young, unemployed actor, who does not understand why he no longer has work, is never invited to auditions, and does not even have the opportunity of doing commercials. He is using public transportation in a large city, that...
Written by: Emmanuelle Roy, translated by Don Druick
Genre: Quebec Theatre, Translation
“In Shards (Far West), Anath Marcheterre is a young archaeologist. Her dig at the Hopewell site in search of remains of North America’s first peoples parallels her personal search for her own sense of identity and community, for knowledge about family origins, and for memories of her past. When the...
Written by: Lise Vaillancourt, translated by Jill MacDougall
Genre: Comedy, Quebec Theatre, Tragedy, Translation
“Marie-Antoine, Opus One is a play in two acts with eleven characters and choruses of mice and schoolgirls… [T]he play is a “neo-baroque tragi-comedy” and “a great opera of words”… a celebration of creativity of all kinds, a celebration of life as a work of art–when vision and dreams triumph... Written by: Jovette Marchessault, translated by Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood
Genre: Feminist Theatre, Historical, Quebec Theatre, Translation
“The Edge of Earth is Too Near, Violette Leduc (La Terre est trop courte, Violette Leduc) is a play in eleven Tableaux about words and creative writing. Its main character, Violette Ledic, is a writer, for whom verbal expression is a visceral necessity. She is dedicated body and soul to... Written by: Marthe Blackburn, Marie-Claire Blais, Nicole Brossard, Odette Gagnon, Luce Guilbeault, Pol Pelletier, France Théoret, translated by Linda Gaboriau
Genre: Drama, Feminist Theatre, Quebec Theatre, Translation
“Taken together, A Clash of Symbols make a radical feminist dramatic statement proclaiming an immediate end to women’s compliance with patriarchal practices, authority, and traditions. The primary dynamics of the play arise from the dramatic conflict constructed between the performers on stage and the audience, whose active role is to... Written by: Marie-Claire Blais, translated Ray Chamberlain
Genre: Drama, Quebec Theatre, Translation
“The Ocean (L’Océan) has nine characters with speaking parts, five men and four women. Two of the characters are elderly fathers facing death; they are the living dead whose presence serves both to inspire and oppress the lives of those around them. In fact, The Ocean… is a scathing indictment of patriarchal... Written by: Françoise Loranger, translated by Louise H. Forsyth
Genre: Quebec Theatre, Translation
“Playing Double (Double jeu) is a two-act play with fourteen characters: a night-school teacher and thirteen students… It is an experimental, multi-media play making extensive use of screen images, original music, and multiple stage areas. Created as a play within a play, it presents a group of adult night school... Written by: Anne Hébert, Translation by Pamela Grant and Gary Reid
Genre: Drama, Quebec Theatre, Translation
“[A Savage Season] is a good example of the often-bleak subject matter which concerned [playwright, Anne Hébert]: a mother desperately tries to keep her family in an isolated mountainous retreat to protect it from the outside world and to keep the grown children in a childlike state — “savage and pure.”...