5 Short Plays for 5 & Up

By Martin Bellemare (Quebec, Canada)

Francophone Canadian
Theatre for Young Audiences

5 SHORT PLAYS FOR 5 & UP

By Martin Bellemare
(Quebec, Canada)

About

Ages: 5 & Up
Length: 20-30 minutes each
Characters: Multiple Voices

This translation commissioned by The Presentation House Theatre (North Vancouver, Canada) and made possible by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts.

Press

“…marvelous and relevant…will amaze both children and adults with a story on the frontiers of reality… ”
David Rofé-Sarfati, Toute la culture

Synopsis

GET THE MOSQUITO
Translated from TUER LE MOUSTIQUE
Ages 5 and Up

Inside a child’s brain, Curiosity, Perception, Obsession, and Imagination compete for who is boss. A short play for young audiences that addresses the complexity of identity.

THE SNAIL’S TAIL
Translated from LA CHUTE DE L’ESCARGOT
Ages 5 and Up

4 actors are ready to play, to do the show. To go, go, go! They announce the title and …e…n…t…e…r……the fifth. The snail meets the cheetah, the cheetah meets the snail. At their own time and own speeds.

WHAT DOES A GIRAFFE SAY
Translated from LE CRI DE LA GIRAFFE
Ages 5 and Up

Emma swallows any sound she finds where they echo in her belly disturbing all around her: her parents, her neighbors, even her doctor. But not Manu. She can’t identify emotions. He takes her sounds and transforms them into something new.

CAN YOU HEAR THE SEA
Translated from L’OREILLE DE MER
Ages 5 and Up

A specialist looks after 4 children scarred by the noises they hear. But what are they hearing? Are the sound only in their dreams? Or are these political, advertising, natural? Do the others hear them? A how do they impact their growing identities?

EXTRAORDINARY AND MYSTERIOUS
Translated from EXTRAORDINAIRE ET MYSTERIEUX
Ages 10 and up

Inspired by the true life stories of James Leininger and the Pollock sisters, after a John and Flo’s daughters have strange memories. Where memories come from and how do they work? The play was commissioned and produced by Nouveau Theare du Huitième, Festival En Acte(s).

About the Playwright

MARTIN BELLEMARE

With his work described as “dazzling formal mastery” and “virtuoso inventiveness” by the Prix Michel-Tremblay jury, Martin Bellemare is a leading new voice in Quebecois theatre whose work has yet to be translated to English.

A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada French Language Playwrighting program. He received NTC’s Creation Award for La Liberté (2012) and Moule Robert (2017). In 2018, he received the Prix SACD de la dramaturgie francophone for Maître Karim la perdrix and the Prix Michel-Tremblay for Moule Robert.

He has been writer in residence at Théâtre de l’Aquarium (Cartoucherie/Paris), La Chartreuse, Centre National des Écritures du Spectacle (Villeneuve-lès Avignon), La Maison des Auteurs (Limoges), the Domaine de Mariemont (CED-WB/Wallonie), Théâtre du Bic (Québec). His work for young audiences is published by Lansman and have been presented in Montréal, Paris and Poznan (Poland). Recently, Des pieds et des mains, was created at Centre National des Arts (Ottawa, 2016), and presented at Tarmac (Paris, 2017).

His work has been produced in Quebec, France, Poland and Switzerland and translated into German, Italian and Lithuanian.