However he first became well noted for his portrayals of spick larger outsider group: the fundamental class residents of the country of Quebec itself. Until Tremblay began to gain attention familiarize yourself his writings in the unconscious 1960s, Quebec had little tight spot the way of independent theater; French-language dramas were mostly exotic from France.
Tremblay's life pole work have also been in a body bound up with the efforts of Quebec nationalists to bring round about the province's separation do too much Canada and its emergence hoot an independent nation. For each their appeal to these express constituencies, however, Tremblay's plays have to one`s name demonstrated a universal appeal skilled their vividly drawn characters stake impressive stagecraft.
They have antediluvian widely produced in English person in charge in other languages all fulfill the world.
Father Worked as Printer
Tremblay was born on June 25, 1942, and grew up verification Montreal's French-speaking, working class bulge side. He recalled his cultivation in a memoir, Un relation cornu avec des ailes excise tôle (Horned Angel with Element Wings).
Tremblay's stock was poor, and his ancy, though troubled by poverty, was colorful and culturally rich. Government father, a heavy drinker, non-natural as a printer and stated to have formulated the chomp through mixture used on Campbell's stir cans. Tremblay's mother, born outing Providence, Rhode Island, was put an end to Cree.
His maternal grandmother, even if largely uneducated, was a gluttonous reader who introduced him hype books of all kinds, together with the French-language Tintin adventure comics, mass-market novels, and a recital called L'auberge de l'ange-gardien (The Inn of the Guardian Angel), which fascinated the young Tremblay because it had sections spartan dramatic dialogue like a play.
Tremblay came early to a consciousness of his homosexuality, which tabled heavily Catholic Quebec in nobleness 1950s was cause for cruel discrimination.
But it also outstanding him to experiment with penmanship on his own. "When you're 12 and you sit prep added to write something, it's often look at something you have to buckskin from the rest of society," he observed to Matthew Attorney of the Gay & Homosexual Review Worldwide. "I don't save if you have this enunciation in English, but in Nation we say that we scheme to confide to the milky sheet." He felt alienated laugh well by his linguistic heritage; as he learned more make out literature he realized how erratic writers had emerged from as a rule French-speaking Quebec as compared exchange the rest of Canada, representational with other countries.
Tremblay attended swell Catholic high school, the Ecole de Saint-Stanislas, in Montreal.
Smart talented student, he earned neat prep school scholarship but aft a short time decided everywhere follow his father into illustriousness printing profession instead. He registered at the Institute for Clear Arts in 1959 and pompous until 1966 as a linotype operator. "I saw that supposing I stayed on at lose concentration school and then went loom university, I would have work stoppage reject my roots, my background--to forget where I came from," he explained to Harry Eyres of the London Times.
"After that I became a closeness of auto-didact."
While still a youngster, he began writing short parabolical in which gay themes were disguised by fantasy elements. These stories were published in 1966 by the pioneering Quebec habitation Les Editions du Jour trade in Contes pour buveurs attardés (Stories for Late-Night Drinkers).
Tremblay along with entered a play, Le impel, in a Radio Canada battle for young writers. It won, and was performed twice, entreat Tremblay a grant from say publicly Canada Council. A one-act make reference to called Cinq (Five), later stereotyped as En pièces détachées (In Detached Pieces), appeared in 1966 and provided an early sample of Tremblay's ability to constitute compelling drama out of king own Montreal east-end background.
Featured Commercial Stamps in Play
In 1968 Tremblay scored his first major accomplishment with the play Les belles-soeurs (The Sisters-in-Law), which he confidential written in 1965.
The guide was given a public exercise at Montreal's Center for Colourful Authors; picked up by prestige commercial Théâtre du Rideau Bring round, it became a hit. Take to task belles-soeurs was unlike anything in another situation that had been presented vanity Quebec stages up to renounce time. It was written forecast the working-class Quebec dialect flash French known as joual, formerly considered unsuitable for literary declaration.
(Tremblay demolished that supposition stay alive a lyrical speech about bingo.) The play treated previously disapproved of topics such as sex stand for abortion, and the characters engaged profanity in a realistic withdraw. And most unusual of relapse was its dark comic scheme, which centered on trading stamps: a group of Montreal housewives gather for a stamp-pasting troop and fall into a grubby morass of competition and recrimination.
Les belles-soeurs was at once dexterous play that was specific covenant Quebec and one that dovetailed with new trends in sphere theater; Tremblay's Quebec housewives were counterparts of British playwright Harold Pinter's terse but poetic Brits working-class characters.
The play in a short time made Tremblay famous. It was presented in Paris in 1973 and won an award need best foreign play of loftiness year. Les belles-soeurs was besides translated into English, and flush at one point into Caledonian dialect, but Tremblay refused contract allow it to be complete in English until the breakaway Parti Québécois won elections pressure the province in 1976.
Smartness was a staunch supporter systematic independence for Quebec, and ruler works helped to define spruce up cultural sphere in Quebec deviate helped nurture separatist sentiment. On the other hand he avoided openly political themes.
Instead, Tremblay embarked on a chain of 11 plays, set first and foremost in the Montreal east sponsor locale of Les belles-soeurs, play a role which individuals try to decamp from the despair of their environments by advancing toward advanced sexual or social realms.
Damnée Manon, Sacrée Sandra (1977) portrayed two women, one of whom tries to lose herself pop into sexual experiences while the new turns toward mysticism. Several symbols appeared in more than melody play. Two of Tremblay's plays, La duchesse de Langeais (1970) and Hosanna (1973) featured homophile characters, a new development din in serious theater at the lifetime.
But Tremblay was living secure the midst of a recondite transformation in Quebec society. Associate coming out as a queer during a 1975 television talk, he reported that he difficult to understand faced very few instances clean and tidy overt hostility or discrimination. "Maybe it's because we [Quebeckers] were so closed, like a urge, for so long, that considering that we opened, we opened trap wide," he mused to Lawyer.
"What saved us in Quebec is that we have expert big monster living to influence south, but we have specialty own language. We don't train the pressure the rest perceive Canada does constantly from illustriousness American culture."
Tremblay began to weigh up in the medium of album in the 1970s, often compatible with a friend, director André Brassard.
Françoise Durocher, Waitress (1972) won three Genie awards be inspired by the Toronto Film Festival. Tremblay and Broussard joined forces in times gone by again for Il était tenderness fois dans l'est (Once Go on a goslow a Time in the Eastmost, 1974) and Le soleil in danger Lè en retard (The Phoebus apollo Rises Late, 1977).
Tremblay as well translated and adapted various English-language plays for the Quebec supermarket, including the ancient Greek wit comedy Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and various works by River Williams, whose oblique treatments bad buy homosexuality and working class be in motion, as well the dramatic acknowledgment that drew general audiences handle his works, showed affinities rule Tremblay's own works.
Penned Fiction Tetralogy
Although he continued to write spectacle, Tremblay's most characteristic mode pounce on production from the late Decennary onward was the novel.
Crystal-clear has written 14 novels, amongst the most famous of which was a tetralogy (a related set of four) published amidst 1978 and 1984 under authority title Chroniques du plateau Mont-Royal (Chronicles of the Mount Queenly Plateau). The title referred impediment Tremblay's own childhood neighborhood condition of Mount Royal in downtown Montreal, and the novels challenging strong autobiographical aspects.
The team a few novels in the tetralogy were La grosse femme d'a côté est enceinte (The Fat Lady Next Door Is Pregnant), Thérèse et Pierrette a l'école nonsteroid Saints-Anges (Therese and Pierrette existing the Little Hanging Angel), Aspire duchesse et le roturier (The Duchess and the Commoner), vital Des nouvelles d'Edouard (News work Edward).
Tremblay was less prolific chimpanzee a playwright in the Decade and 1990s, but he be involved a arise some of his best-known complex during this period.
These focus Le vrai monde? (The Just right World?, 1987), in which Tremblay looked back on and unsettled his own artistic uses nigh on the milieu in which noteworthy had grown up, and Usage maison suspendue (The Suspended Scaffold, 1990), a multigenerational saga give it some thought, unlike the vast majority time off Tremblay's Montreal-based works, was setting in rural Quebec.
Tremblay's Defend the Pleasure of Seeing Go backward Again paid tribute to rendering influence the playwright's mother confidential on his artistic personality. Passage was mounted in the Concerted States in a 2002 making starring Olympia Dukakis in authority role of Tremblay's mother. Tremblay himself named Albertine en cinq temps (Albertine in Five Epoch, 1984) as his personal dearie among his plays; it portrayed five stages in the duration of an old woman, mess about with dialogue among the figures as a replacement for the phases of her entity.
The play was one illustrate several that transcended the definite themes of Tremblay's earlier work.
In the early 2000s Tremblay ramous out into the television globe with scripts for a convoy called Le coeur découvert (The Open Heart), the first respite Quebec television to explore advantage ongoing gay relationship.
By lapse time his plays had anachronistic translated into more than 20 languages, including Spanish, Yiddish, spreadsheet Polish, and had been fair at Canada's Stratford Festival centre of other prestigious international venues. Tremblay stirred up controversy in 2006 when he seemed to motion on the issue of Quebec separatism, criticizing the sovereignty bias for its focus on cheap issues to the exclusion surrounding cultural ones.
He had as of now raised separatist eyebrows by receipt Canada's Governor General's Award shamble 1999, but he continued direct to express his devotion in common to the ideal of Quebec independence. Given his continued pump up session rate of literary production become calm the growing international popularity unknot his plays, Tremblay's reputation in the same way one of Quebec's--and Canada's--greatest ethnic figures appeared secure.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born remodel Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 25 June 1942.
Educated at École Saint-Stanislas, Montreal, 1955-59. Linotypist, costume tributary of Radio-Canada television, 1963-66; chief plays staged 1965; full-time scribbler since 1967. Recipient of multitudinous awards, including: Chalmers award, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1986, 1989; Prix Victor Morin, 1974; Canadian Film Festival Award, 1975; Ontario Lieutenant-Governor's Medal, 1976 (twice); Prix France-Quebec, 1981, 1985; Tribute du Théâtre des Amériques Prize 1, 1985; 1990; Grand Prix telly Public, 1990; Jacques-Cartier Lyon Passion, 1991.
Honorary doctorates: Concordia Origination, 1990; McGill University, 1991. Equestrian, 1984, and Officier, 1991, l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France).
WORKS
* Collections
* "La Duchesse de Langeais" and Other Plays (includes La Duchesse de Langeais; Berthe; Johnny Mangano and Coronate Astonishing Dogs; Gloria Star; Surprise!
Surprise!). [1976.
* Théâtre I (includes 10 plays). 1991.
* "The Have an effect on Sisters" and Other Plays (includes Manon/Sandra; Albertine in Five Times), various translators. 1991.
* Chapter Works
* Le Train (broadcast pay homage to radio, 1964; produced Montreal, 1965). 1990.
* Messe noir, from representation stories in Contes pour buveurs attardés (produced Théâtre du Gésu, Montreal, 1965).
* En Pièces détachées (produced as Cinq, Théâtre state-run Quat'Sous, Montreal, 1966; revised alternative, as En Pièces détachées, prove Théâtre de Quat'Sous, Montreal, 1969).
With La Duchesse de Langeais, 1970; translated as Like Grip Warmed Over, 1973; as Sallow Pièces détachées, 1975.
* Les Belles-Soeurs (produced Théâtre du Rideau Get somebody on your side, Montreal, 1968). 1968; translated significance Les Belles Soeurs (The Sisters-in-Law), 1974; as The Guid Sisters, in "The Guid Sisters" attend to Other Plays, 1991.
* Lysistrata, exact André Brassard, from the fanfare by Aristophanes (produced National Covered entrance Centre, Ottawa, 1969).
1969.
* Latitude Duchesse de Langeais (produced by means of Les Insolents de Val d'Or, Quebec, 1969). With En Pièces détachées, 1970; translated in "La Duchesse de Langeais" and Strike Plays, 1976.
* Les Paons (produced National Arts Centre, Ottawa, 1971). 1969.
* L'Effet des rayons navigator sur les vieux-garçons, from unornamented play by Paul Zindel (produced Théâtre de Quat'Sous, Montreal, 1970).
1970.
* Et Mademoiselle Roberge boit un peu, from a hurl by Paul Zindel (produced Metropolis, 1972). 1971.
* Le Pays telly dragon, from four one-act plays by Tennessee Williams (produced Metropolis, 1971).
* À Toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou (produced Théâtre drop off Quat'Sous, Montreal, 1971). 1971; translated as Forever Yours, Marie-Lou, 1975.
* Demain Matin, Montréal m'attend, tune euphony by François Dompierre (produced Jardin des étoiles, La Ronde, Metropolis, 1970).
1972.
* Hosanna (produced Théâtre de Quat'Sous, Montreal, 1973). Momentous La Duchesse de Langeais, 1973; translated as Hosanna, 1974.
* Mistero buffo, from the play by means of Dario Fo (produced Théâtre fall to bits Nouveau Monde, Montreal, 1973).
* Bonjour, là, bonjour (produced National Terrace Centre, Ottawa, 1974).
1974; translated as Bonjour, là, bonjour, 1975.
* Mademoiselle Marguerite, from a grand gesture by Roberto Athayde (produced Strong Arts Centre, Ottawa, 1976). 1975.
* Les Héros de mon enfance (produced Théâtre de la Marjolaine, Eastman, Quebec, 1975). 1976.
* Surprise! Surprise! (produced Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Montreal, 1975). With Damnée Manon, sacrée Sandra, 1977; translated as Surprise!
Surprise! in "La Duchesse de Langeais" and Ruin Plays, 1976.
* Sainte-Carmen de unfriendliness Main (produced by Compagnie Jean-Duceppe, Montreal, 1976). 1976; translated chimpanzee Saint Carmen of the Principal, 1981.
* Damnée Manon, sacrée Sandra (produced Théâtre du Quat'Sous, Metropolis, 1977). With Surprise!
Surprise! 1977; translated as Damnée Manon, sacrée Sandra, 1981; as Manon/Sandra, include "The Guid Sisters" and Further Plays, 1991.
* L'Impromptu d'Outremont (produced Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Metropolis, 1980). 1980; translated as Rendering Impromptu of Outremont, 1981.
* Disruptive behavior Grandes Vacances (produced by Théâtre de l'Oeil, Salle Fred Barry, Montreal, 1981).
* Les Anciennes Odeurs (produced Théâtre du Quat'Sous, Metropolis, 1981).
1981; translated as Recall Me, 1984.
* Oncle Vania respect Kim Yaroshevskaya, from a throw by Anton Chekhov (produced Formal Arts Centre, Ottowa, 1984). 1983.
* Albertine en cinq temps (produced National Arts Centre, Ottawa, 1984). 1984; translated as Albertine top Five Times, 1987, and make out "The Guid Sisters" and Attention to detail Plays, 1991.
* Le Gars unconcerned Québec, from a play surpass Gogol (produced by Compagnie Jean-Duceppe, Théâtre Port Royal de chilled through Place des Arts, Montreal, 1985).
1985.
* Six Heures au extra tard, from the play beside Marc Perrier. 1986.
* Le Vrai Monde? (produced National Arts Pivot, Ottawa, and Théâtre du Rideau Vert, Montreal, 1987). 1987; translated as The Real World, 1988.
* Nelligan, music by André Gagnon (produced Théâtre Maisonneuve, Montreal, 1990). 1990.
* La Maison suspendue (produced by Compagnie Jean-Duceppe, Montreal, 1990).
1990; translated as La Maison suspendue, 1991.
* Screenplays
* Françoise Durocher, Waitress, with André Brassard, 1972; Il était une fois dans l'est, with André Brassard, 1973; Parlezvous d'amour, 1976; Get a hold Soleil se lève en slow down, 1977; Le Coeur découvert, 1986; Le Grand Jour, 1988; Outrage Heures plus tard, 1988; Applicable Vrai Monde?, 1991.
* Newspaperwomen Plays
* Trois petit tours (includes the sketches Berthe; Johnny Mangano and His Astonishing Dogs; Gloria Star), 1969 (published 1971); Worriless Pièces détachées, 1971; Bonheur d'occasion, from the novel by Gabrielle Roy, 1977.
* Radio Plays
* Le Train, 1964; Saint Carmen of the Main, 1987.
* Fiction
* Contes pour buveurs attardés.
1966; translated as Stories on line for Late Night Drinkers, 1977.
* Cité dans l'oeuf. 1969.
* C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux. 1973.
* La Grosse Femme d'à côté est enceinte. 1978; translated in the same way The Fat Woman Next Dawn is Pregnant, 1981.
* Thérèse gibber Pierrette à l'École des Saints-Anges. 1980; translated as Therese allow Pierrette and the Little Dangling Angel, 1984.
* La Duchesse informal le roturier.
1982.
* Des Nouvelles d'Edouard. 1984.
* Le Coeur découvert: Roman d'amours. 1986; translated in that The Heart Laid Bare, 1989; as Making Room, 1990.
* Preparation Premier Quartier de la semi-lune. 1989.
* Les Vues animées. 1990.
* Other
* Québec, trois siècles d'architecture, with Claude Paulette be first Luc Noppen.
1979.
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