Michel Tremblay
Encyclopedia
Michel Tremblay, CQ
(born in Montreal
, Quebec
25 June 1942) is a Canadian
novel
ist and playwright
.
Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking
neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual
dialect, something that would heavily influence his work. Tremblay's first professionally produced play, Les Belles-Sœurs, was written in 1965 and premiered at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on August 28, 1968. Its impact was huge, bringing down the old guard of Canadian theatre and introducing joual
to the mainstream. It stirred up controversy by portraying the lives of working class women and attacking the straight-laced, deeply religious society of mid-20th century Quebec. Today, Tremblay is the director of the Goodman Cancer Research Centre at McGill University.
of the early 1960s, Tremblay saw Quebec as a poor, working-class province dominated by an English-speaking
elite and the Roman Catholic Church
. Tremblay's work was part of a vanguard of liberal, nationalist thought that helped create an essentially modern society.
His most famous plays are usually centered on homosexual characters. The women are usually strong but possessed with demons they must vanquish. It is said he sees Quebec as a matriarchal society. He is considered one of the best playwrights for women.
In the late 1980s, Les Belles-soeurs
("The Sisters-in-Law") was produced in Scotland in Scots
, as The Guid-Sisters ("guid-sister" being Scots for "sister-in-law"). His work has been translated into many languages, including Yiddish, and including such works as Sainte-Carmen de la Main, Ç'ta ton tour, Laura Cadieux, and Forever Yours, Marilou (À toi pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou).
He has been openly
gay
throughout his public life, and he has written many novels (The Duchess and the Commoner, La nuit des princes charmants, Le Coeur découvert, Le Coeur éclaté) and plays (Hosanna, La duchesse de Langeais, Fragments de mensonges inutiles) centred on gay characters. In a 1987 interview with Shelagh Rogers
for CBC Radio
's The Arts Tonight, he remarked that he has always avoided behaviours he has considered masculine; for example, he does not smoke and he noted that he was 45 years old and did not know how to drive a car. "I think I am a rare breed," he said, "A homosexual who doesn't like men." He claims one of his biggest regrets in life was not telling his mother that he was gay, before she died.
His latest play to receive wide acclaim is For The Pleasure Of Seeing Her Again, a funny and nostalgic play, centered on the memories of his mother.
He later published the Plateau Mont-Royal Chronicles, a cycle of six novels including The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant
(La grosse femme d'à côté est enceinte, 1978) and The Duchess and the Commoner (La duchesse et le roturier, 1982).
The second novel of this series, Therese and Pierrette and the Little Hanging Angel (Thérèse et Pierrette à l'école des Saints-Anges, 1980), was one of the novels chosen for inclusion in the French version of Canada Reads
, Le combat des livres, broadcast on Radio-Canada
in 2005, where it was championed by union activist
Monique Simard.
Tremblay worked also on a television series entitled Le Cœur découvert (The Heart Laid Bare), about the lives of a gay couple in Quebec, for the French-language TV network Radio-Canada.
In 2005 he completed another novel cycle, the Cahiers (Le Cahier noir (translated as The Black Notebook), Le Cahier rouge, Le Cahier bleu), dealing with the changes that occurred in 1960s Montreal during the Quiet Revolution.
In 2009 The Fat Woman Next Door was a finalist in CBC's prestigious Canada Reads competition.
was elected in Quebec, he softened his views on allowing his plays to be produced in English there. He made it clear, however, that that did not mean that he agreed with bilingualism
, calling it "stupid" and stating that he thought it ridiculous to expect a housewife in Vancouver to be fluent in both English and French.
Despite his often outspoken views in public, Tremblay's treatment of politics in his plays is subtle. Speaking of politics and the theatre in an CBC
interview in 1978, Tremblay said:
In April 2006 he declared that he did not support the arguments put forward for the separation of Quebec. But he clarified his thoughts some time later by saying he was still a supporter of Quebec sovereignty
, though critical of the actual state of the debate, which in his opinion was too much focused on economic issues. In response to this, the columnist Marc Cassivi of La Presse wrote that "there was only one closet a Quebec artist could never exit and that was the federalist one."
(1986) and the Molson Prize
(1994).
He received the Lieutenant-Governor's award for Ontario in 1976 and 1977. Tremblay was named the "Montréalais le plus remarquable des deux dernières décennies dans le domaine du théâtre" (the most remarkable Montrealer of the past two decades in theatre) (1978). In 1991 he was appointed Officier de l'Ordre de France, and in the same year, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Québec
. He is also a recipient of the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France (1994).
In 1999, he received a Governor General's Award
for the Performing Arts. This produced controversy when several well-known Quebec nationalists suggested that he should refuse the award. While he did not do this, he did admit, for the first time, that he had refused the Order of Canada
in 1990.
In 2000, Encore une fois, si vous le permettez (For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again) won a Chalmers Award and a Dora Mavor Moore Award
.
National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...
(born in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
25 June 1942) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist and playwright
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
.
Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual
Joual
Joual is the common name for the linguistic features of basilectal Quebec French that are associated with the French-speaking working class in Montreal which has become a symbol of national identity for a large number of artists from that area...
dialect, something that would heavily influence his work. Tremblay's first professionally produced play, Les Belles-Sœurs, was written in 1965 and premiered at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on August 28, 1968. Its impact was huge, bringing down the old guard of Canadian theatre and introducing joual
Joual
Joual is the common name for the linguistic features of basilectal Quebec French that are associated with the French-speaking working class in Montreal which has become a symbol of national identity for a large number of artists from that area...
to the mainstream. It stirred up controversy by portraying the lives of working class women and attacking the straight-laced, deeply religious society of mid-20th century Quebec. Today, Tremblay is the director of the Goodman Cancer Research Centre at McGill University.
His work and its impact
The most profound and lasting effects of Tremblay's early plays, including Hosanna and La Duchesse de Langeais, were the barriers they toppled in Quebec society. Until the Quiet RevolutionQuiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...
of the early 1960s, Tremblay saw Quebec as a poor, working-class province dominated by an English-speaking
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
elite and the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Tremblay's work was part of a vanguard of liberal, nationalist thought that helped create an essentially modern society.
His most famous plays are usually centered on homosexual characters. The women are usually strong but possessed with demons they must vanquish. It is said he sees Quebec as a matriarchal society. He is considered one of the best playwrights for women.
In the late 1980s, Les Belles-soeurs
Les Belles-soeurs
Les Belles-soeurs is a two-act play written by Michel Tremblay in 1965. It was Tremblay's first professionally produced work and remains his most popular and most translated work. The play has had a profound effect on Quebec language, culture and theatre. Les Belles-soeurs premiered at Théâtre...
("The Sisters-in-Law") was produced in Scotland in Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
, as The Guid-Sisters ("guid-sister" being Scots for "sister-in-law"). His work has been translated into many languages, including Yiddish, and including such works as Sainte-Carmen de la Main, Ç'ta ton tour, Laura Cadieux, and Forever Yours, Marilou (À toi pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou).
He has been openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
throughout his public life, and he has written many novels (The Duchess and the Commoner, La nuit des princes charmants, Le Coeur découvert, Le Coeur éclaté) and plays (Hosanna, La duchesse de Langeais, Fragments de mensonges inutiles) centred on gay characters. In a 1987 interview with Shelagh Rogers
Shelagh Rogers
Shelagh Rogers, OC is a Canadian radio broadcaster. She is currently the host of CBC Radio One's The Next Chapter.Rogers grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. She was the "Head Girl" at her high school, Lisgar Collegiate Institute. She played in the Ottawa Youth Orchestra and was a spare on the Reach for...
for CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
's The Arts Tonight, he remarked that he has always avoided behaviours he has considered masculine; for example, he does not smoke and he noted that he was 45 years old and did not know how to drive a car. "I think I am a rare breed," he said, "A homosexual who doesn't like men." He claims one of his biggest regrets in life was not telling his mother that he was gay, before she died.
His latest play to receive wide acclaim is For The Pleasure Of Seeing Her Again, a funny and nostalgic play, centered on the memories of his mother.
He later published the Plateau Mont-Royal Chronicles, a cycle of six novels including The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant is a 1978 novel by Canadian author Michel Tremblay. It focuses on a single day in the life of Georgia Phillips, a local harlet in the spring of 1942, in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood of Montreal....
(La grosse femme d'à côté est enceinte, 1978) and The Duchess and the Commoner (La duchesse et le roturier, 1982).
The second novel of this series, Therese and Pierrette and the Little Hanging Angel (Thérèse et Pierrette à l'école des Saints-Anges, 1980), was one of the novels chosen for inclusion in the French version of Canada Reads
Canada Reads
Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC.-Overview:During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series...
, Le combat des livres, broadcast on Radio-Canada
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
in 2005, where it was championed by union activist
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
Monique Simard.
Tremblay worked also on a television series entitled Le Cœur découvert (The Heart Laid Bare), about the lives of a gay couple in Quebec, for the French-language TV network Radio-Canada.
In 2005 he completed another novel cycle, the Cahiers (Le Cahier noir (translated as The Black Notebook), Le Cahier rouge, Le Cahier bleu), dealing with the changes that occurred in 1960s Montreal during the Quiet Revolution.
In 2009 The Fat Woman Next Door was a finalist in CBC's prestigious Canada Reads competition.
Political views
For many years, Tremblay has believed that the only reasonable solution for Quebec is to separate from Canada. Once the Parti QuébécoisParti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
was elected in Quebec, he softened his views on allowing his plays to be produced in English there. He made it clear, however, that that did not mean that he agreed with bilingualism
Bilingualism in Canada
The official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to Canada's constitution...
, calling it "stupid" and stating that he thought it ridiculous to expect a housewife in Vancouver to be fluent in both English and French.
Despite his often outspoken views in public, Tremblay's treatment of politics in his plays is subtle. Speaking of politics and the theatre in an CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
interview in 1978, Tremblay said:
"I know what I want in the theatre. I want a real political theatre, but I know that political theatre is dull. I write fables."
In April 2006 he declared that he did not support the arguments put forward for the separation of Quebec. But he clarified his thoughts some time later by saying he was still a supporter of Quebec sovereignty
Quebec sovereignty movement
The Quebec sovereignty movement refers to both the political movement and the ideology of values, concepts and ideas that promote the secession of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada...
, though critical of the actual state of the debate, which in his opinion was too much focused on economic issues. In response to this, the columnist Marc Cassivi of La Presse wrote that "there was only one closet a Quebec artist could never exit and that was the federalist one."
Awards and honours
Tremblay has received numerous awards in recognition of his work. These include the Prix Victor-Morin (1974), the Prix France-Québec (1984), the Chalmers AwardChalmers Award
Chalmers Award may refer to:* An early version of the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award, presented from 1911 to 1914,* a Canadian series of arts awards funded by the Chalmers family of arts patrons, including the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards, the Jean A. Chalmers National...
(1986) and the Molson Prize
Molson Prize
The Thomas Henry Pentland Molson Prize for the Arts is awarded by The Canada Council for the Arts. Two prizes are awarded annually to distinguished individuals. One prize is awarded in the arts, one in the social sciences and humanities...
(1994).
He received the Lieutenant-Governor's award for Ontario in 1976 and 1977. Tremblay was named the "Montréalais le plus remarquable des deux dernières décennies dans le domaine du théâtre" (the most remarkable Montrealer of the past two decades in theatre) (1978). In 1991 he was appointed Officier de l'Ordre de France, and in the same year, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Québec
National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...
. He is also a recipient of the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France (1994).
In 1999, he received a Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...
for the Performing Arts. This produced controversy when several well-known Quebec nationalists suggested that he should refuse the award. While he did not do this, he did admit, for the first time, that he had refused the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
in 1990.
In 2000, Encore une fois, si vous le permettez (For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again) won a Chalmers Award and a Dora Mavor Moore Award
Dora Mavor Moore Award
The Dora Mavor Moore Award is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the award was established on December 13, 1978...
.
Novels and short story collections
Note: Most titles also available in English translations- Contes pour buveurs attardés (1966) (Tales for Belated Drinkers)
- La Cité dans l'œuf (1969) (The City in the Egg)
- C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux (1973) (It's Your Turn, Laura Cadieux)
- Le Cœur découvert (1986) (The Heart Laid Bare)
- Les Vues animées (1990) (The Views Animated)
- Douze coups de théâtre: récits (1992) (Twelve Strokes of Drama: Stories)
- Le Cœur éclaté (1993) (The Heart Broken)
- Un ange cornu avec des ailes de tôle (1994)
- La nuit des princes charmants (1995) (Some Night My Prince Will Come)
- Le Fantôme de Don Carlos(1996) (The Phantom of Don Carlos)
- Quarante-quatre minutes, quarante-quatre secondes (1997) (Forty-Four Minutes, Forty-Four Seconds)
- Hôtel Bristol New York, N.Y (1999) (Bristol Hotel New York, NY)
- L'Homme qui entendait siffler une bouilloire (2001) (The Man who heard a Whistling Kettle)
- Bonbons assortis (2002) (Assorted Candies)
- Le Trou dans le mur (2006) (The Hole in the Wall)
- La Traversée du continent (2007) (The Crossing Continent)
- La Traversée de la ville (2008) (The Crossing of the City)
- La Traversée des sentiments (2009) (The Crossing Feelings
- Chroniques du Plateau Mont-Royal, series of six novels:
- La grosse femme d'à côté est enceinte (1978) (The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant)
- Thérèse et Pierrette à l'école des Saints-Anges (1980) (Therese and Pierrette and the Little Hanging Angel)
- La Duchesse et le roturier (1982) (The Duchess and the Commoner)
- Des nouvelles d'Édouard (1984) (News from Édouard)
- Le Premier Quartier de la lune (1989) (The First Quarter of the Moon)
- Un objet de beauté (1997) (A Thing of Beauty)
- The Notebook Trilogy:
- Le Cahier noir (2003) (The Black Notebook)
- Le Cahier rouge (2004) (The Red Notebook)
- Le Cahier bleu (2005) (The Blue Notebook)
Plays
Note: Most titles also available in English translations- Le Train, 1964. ("The Train")
- En pièces détachées, 1970. (available in English as "In Parts")
- Trois petits tourts, 1971. ("Three Pies")
- À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou (1970) (Forever Yours, Marilou)
- Les Belles-Sœurs, 1968. (available in English as "The Sisters In-Law")
- Demain matin, Montréal m'attend, 1972. ("Tomorrow Morning, Montreal Waits for Me")
- HosannaHosanna (play)Hosanna is a 1973 play by French-Canadian writer Michel Tremblay.The story takes place in Montreal, Quebec and centres around the relationship between Hosanna, a drag queen dressed as Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra, and Cuirette, an aging "stud" and homosexual biker...
et La Duchesse de Langeais, 1973. (available in English as Hosanna and La Duchesse de Langeais) - Bonjour, là, bonjour, 1974. (available in English as Hello There, Hello)
- Les Héros de mon enfance, 1976. ("The Heroes of my Childhood")
- Sainte Carmen de la Main et Surprise ! Surprise !, 1976 (Under the name Sainte-Carmen of the Main, this play received its first U.S. run at New York City's Cubiculo Theatre in 1986)
- Damnée Manon, sacrée Sandra, 1977. ("Manon Damned, Sacred Sandra," available in English as Damnée Manon, sacrée Sandra)
- L'Impromptu d'Outremont, 1980. (The Impromptu of Outremont)
- Les Anciennes Odeurs, 1981. ("The Ancient Odours")
- Albertine en cinq temps, 1984 (Albertine in Five Times)
- Le Gars de Québec: d'après le Revizor de Gogol, 1985. ("The Boys of Quebec from the Government Inspector by Gogol")
- Le Vrai monde ?, 1987. (The Real World?)
- Nelligan, 1990. ("Nelligan")
- La Maison suspendue, 1990. (The House Adjourned, available in English as La Maison suspendue)
- Marcel poursuivi par les chiens, 1992. (Marcel Pursued by the Hounds)
- En circuit fermé, 1994. ("Closed Circuit")
- Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d'été, 1996. ("Solemn Mass for a Full Moon Summer")
- Encore une fois si vous permettez, 1998 (For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again)
- L'État des lieux, 2002. ("The Current Situation")
- Impératif présent, 2003. ("Present")
- Bonbons assortis au théâtre, 2006 (Assorted Candy for the Theatre)
- Le Paradis à la fin de vos jours, 2008 ("Paradise at the end of your days")
- Fragments de mensonges inutiles, 2009 ("Pieces of useless lies")
Film scripts
- Françoise Durocher, waitress
- Il était une fois dans l'est
- Parlez-nous d'amour
- Le Soleil se lève en retard
- C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux'
Works about Tremblay
- Tremblay, Michel. (2003). Birth of a Bookworm. Translated by Sheila Fischman. Talonbooks: Vancouver, BC. ISBN 978-0-88922-476-6.
- Tremblay, Michel. (1998). Bambi and Me. Translated by Sheila Fischman. Talonbooks: Vancouver, BC. ISBN 978-0-88922-380-6.
- Renate Usmiani, Michel Tremblay. Douglas and McIntyre, 1982, ISBN 0-295-95863-4
- Gilbert David and Pierre Lavoie, editors, "Le Monde de Michel Tremblay". Cahiers de Théâtre JEU/Éditions Lansman, 1993.
- Craig WalkerCraig WalkerCraig Stewart Walker is a Canadian writer, theatre director, actor and educator.Walker graduated from Bayview Secondary School and afterwards, began his career in the theatre as an actor with the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival and the National Arts Centre of Canada and other companies. ...
, "Michel Tremblay: Existential Mythopoeia," The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition. McGill-Queen's UP, 2001, ISBN 0-7735-2074-0 (hardcover), ISBN 0-7735-2075-9 (paperback)
External links
- Official Biography of Tremblay (Agence Goodwin)
- CBC Digital Archives – Michel Tremblay: L'enfant terrible of Canadian Theatre
- Interview, online from CBC Words at Large (audio excerpt)
- CBC Digital Archives – Michel Tremblay, Canada Reads author
- Michel Tremblay entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Watch The Wanderer, an adaptation of Michel Tremblay's short story The Devil and the Mushroom