Arts & Culture

I first learned from a customer at the Toronto Reference Library that  Les Belles-Soeurs, the smash hit French-Canadian musical version of Michel Tremblay's classic play, was coming to Toronto in January.  It's not coming 'direct to the theatre', nor will it be in French. Instead, Les Belles-Soeurs is to be workshopped for an English translation by Copa de Oro Productions (from Montréal) in collaboration with Theatre Twenty, a brand new musical theatre company starting up here in Toronto.

Wow! I quickly looked up information to remind myself about Tremblay's original play. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Canadian Theatre, and the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia, Michel Tremblay wrote Les Belles-Soeurs in 1965, and saw it premiered at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on August 28, 1968.  It was his first professionally produced play.  And what a controversial and spectacular production it was!  Les Belles-Soeurs changed how French-Canadian plays were written, capturing not only the gritty lives of real people (and women, at that), but also the language in which they spoke.

Here is an interview with Michel Tremblay at an exhibit celebrating the anniversary of Les Belles-Soeurs…

Now, more than 40 years later, Les Belles-Soeurs' translation into musical theatre by writer Réné Richard Cyr and composer Daniel Bélanger has won'the hearts of Montreal audiences.  It is set to conquer the rest of the province over the next three years as it tours Quebec. 

 The English version should be just as exciting and wonderful a musical as its French counterpart.  Linda Gaboriau is expected to take on the challenge of the Québécois parlance.  She recently won'the Governor-General’s Award for her translation of Wajdi Mouawad’s Forests, and is also a long-time translator of Tremblay.