September 06, 2002 -

Ottawa, Ontario -- On September 19, 20, 21, 27 and 28, the National Arts Centre (NAC) French Theatre will present L'État des lieux, the new satirical comedy by Michel Tremblay, directed by André Brassard and produced by the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (Montreal). Featured in the cast are Kathleen Fortin, Roger La Rue, Béatrice Picard and Marthe Turgeon, with Laurent Duceppe-Deschênes and Philippe Provencher.

A lady named Patricia Pasquetti has built an international career as a dramatic soprano - nothing too unusual about that. But when we discover that her real name is Patricia Paquette and that she's from Montreal, things become more interesting... Returning to her home town after letting out a disgraceful squawk in the closing scene of Salome at the Paris Opera, the diva takes out her frustrations on her daughter, criticizing her lack of ambition in throwing herself life and soul into desperately local theatre. The lambasting would continue uninterrupted were it not for the arrival of a formidable adversary: Patricia's own mother, a stage and T.V. actress like her granddaughter, who has some very firm opinions about artistic freedom. In L'État des lieux, as in his earlier plays L'Impromptu d'Outremont and En circuit fermé (Closed Circuit), Michel Tremblay displays his remarkable talents as a satirist and agent provocateur.

Michel Tremblay

Since the premiere of his 1968 play Les Belles-Soeurs, Michel Tremblay has become one of the leading playwrights of the second half of the twentieth century. Translated into 22 languages, acclaimed by audiences around the world, his plays shed a revealing new light on familiar people and events. The author of such powerful dramas as À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou (Forever Yours, Marie-Lou) and Albertine, en cinq temps (Albertine, in Five Times) is also a formidable and hilarious satirist, as demonstrated by such works as L'Impromptu d'Outremont, En circuit fermé (Closed Circuit), and now L'État des lieux.

André Brassard

A towering figure on the Quebec theatre scene, André Brassard has infused directing in Quebec with the energy and recognition it enjoys today. In a career spanning some 35 years, he has directed over 120 plays by leading Quebec and international authors - Michel Tremblay, Normand Chaurette, Claude Gauvreau, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Racine.... Memorable directing credits include Genet's Les Paravents (The Screens), Beckett's En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot), and Pirandello's Six personnages en quête d'auteur (Six Characters in Search of an Author). André Brassard is the former Artistic Director of the NAC French Theatre (1982-1990) and Director of the French Section of the National Theatre School of Canada (1992-2000), a position he left in order to devote more time to teaching and directing. In 1987 he received the Victor-Morin Prize awarded by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste in recognition of his major contribution to Quebec theatre, and in 2000 he received the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the Quebec government's most prestigious performing arts award. His undisputed mastery of the director's art was evident in his production of Marivaux's La Double Inconstance, presented by the NAC French Theatre last December.

The curtain has just come down, and the theatre is still crackling with the energy of the play that has just ended. The audience members are reacting to the experience, shaping their emotions into ideas and opinions. Still half in character, barely out of makeup, the actors join the director onstage and begin a dialogue with the audience. Together, artists and audience share their impressions, their reactions, their thoughts.

Join host Paul Lefebvre, Associate Artistic Director of the NAC French Theatre, for these informal talkback sessions, held right in the theatre a few minutes after the first Thursday-evening performance of each play.

Thursday, September 19: Meet the cast and creative team of L'État des lieux.

Information:
Isabelle Brisebois
Communications Officer
Tel.: (613) 947-7000, ext. 759
French Theatre Fax: (613) 996-2828
ibrisebo@nac-cna.ca