THE SHOE
By David Paquet | Translated by Leanna Brodie
BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective (Vancouver, Canada)
with British Equity WSW London Branch (London, UK)
Special thanks to Lola May, Natasha Mendez, David Mildon, Caroline Moroney (London, UK), Sonja Zobel (Salzburg, Austria), translator Leanna Brodie (Vancouver, Canada) and playwright David Paquet (Montreal, Canada).
Melanie’s son Benoit, age 8, has a pain that won’t go away, so she takes him to the dentist. Naturally, this results in an epic meltdown. With Benoit, nothing is ever simple… In the end, Melanie – with the help of a kindly alcoholic receptionist, and a dentist who prefers plants to people – must face the fact that her son’s problems are much larger than a simple toothache. Le Soulier is a bipolar comedy, a hilarious and unsettling play in which empathy triumphs over illness.
David Paquet won the Governor General’s Award for French-language drama at the 2010 Governor General’s Awards, and the Prix Michel-Tremblay, for his play Porc-épic. His other plays have included 2h14, Appels entrants illimités, Le brasier and Papiers mâchés.