Internation New Translation Development Workshop (London UK – Montreal Canada)
March 2020, I was kindly invited by the British Equity WSW London Office to lead some new play development activities.
Taking advantage of this opportunity to introduce British artists to francophone Canadian works in translations. Barbed Wire translator, Johanna Nutter, joined us from Montreal via skype.
Bouche Theatre Collective (Canada) and British Equity (London UK)
FROM ALASKA
By Sébastien Harrisson | Translated by Leanna Brodie
Featuring Joan Blackham and James Watterson | Produced by Lola May & Jack Paterson.
One summer evening, a retired librarian is “taken hostage” in her suburban home by her tough-talking teenaged neighbour. Time passes with the unpredictable rhythms of grief – the slowness of healing, the fast-forwards of distraction. Meanwhile, the old woman and the young man discover what they have in common: the one they love most in all the world has just gone away… Moving effortlessly between street-smart humour and lyrical elegance, Harrisson explores love in all its pain, confusion, and unexpected joy.
Cast Size: 1F/1M
Nominated for the Carol Bolt Award for Best New Play in September 2020. Winner of the Critic’s Prize for best play of the Montréal season. Nominated for the Governor-General’s Award for Drama.
Joan Blackham, James Watterson, & Jack Paterson in London, UK and Leanna Brodie in Vancouver, Canada (on tablet)
Sébastien Harrisson
Born in 1975 in Quebec, Sébastien Harrisson trained in playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada. Author of a dozen plays, he has established himself, both on the Quebec and French scenes, with Floes and Titanica. Translated into German, English, Spanish and Flemish, his work continues to travel and reveals him as one of the most innovative voices in current Quebec dramaturgy.
Leanna Brodie
Johanna Nutter is artistic director of creature/creature, a polymorphic company born of Nutter’s passion for blurring lines between established divisions. Her work has toured extensively throughout her home province of Quebec, across Canada and internationally, in both English and French, to such venues as Soho Theatre (London), The Pleasance (Edinburgh), Les Halles (Brussels), and La Licorne (Montreal). Known for her intimate and personal collaborations, recent works include Tree Hug, OSCAR, and the multi-award winning my pregnant brother/my playwright sister (2009 – 2018). She won the PWM/Cole Emerging Translator award and brought CHLORINE (Longpré & Michon), which produced and directed at The Centaur (Brave New Looks 2016). She is currently working on texts by Annick Lefèbvre, Guillaume Corbeil, and Étienne Lepage.
About Bouche & our Partners
Bouche Theatre Collective (Vancouver, Canada)
Founded in 2012, Bouche has been bringing artists and audiences together separated by language, distance, and culture locally, nationally, and internationally. With a specific focus on the cross pollination between Canadian francophone and anglophone artists and the international community, Bouche reaches out through translation, multi-lingual work, and devised creation. www.bouchewhacked.com
British Equity WSW London Branch (London, UK)
The West and South West London Branch of Equity UK. Equity, formerly officially titled the British Actors’ Equity Association, is the trade union for actors, singers, models, performers, directors, choreographers, designers, stage managers, and other creative workers in the United Kingdom. It was formed by a group of West End performers in 1930 and incorporated the Variety Artistes’ Federation in 1967.
