by AMY BARRATT

First came the announcement from the Centaur Theatre that Michel Tremblay's The Driving Force, scheduled to be produced there in November, was being cancelled or indefinitely postponed. The July press release implied that the cause was the fragile health of director André Brassard. Then, late last week, a communiqué from Théâtre du rideau vert (TRV) announced that Tremblay's Bonbons assortis, scheduled for next spring, would now be directed by René Richard Cyr instead of Brassard, due to an "artistic disagreement" between the two long-time collaborators.

The news of a falling out is alarming because for nearly 40 years, virtually every new Tremblay work has premiered in Quebec under Brassard's direction.

No one seems to know, or be willing to say, what caused the rift. Tremblay, who has been undergoing treatment for throat cancer, is not giving interviews. Brassard told La Presse that he wasn't allowed to talk about the situation, having signed some sort of agreement. Nevertheless, the respected director made it clear that it was Tremblay who didn't want him on the project.

"He didn't want me touching his play," Brassard told reporter Ève Dumas. He said the decision had been communicated to him two weeks earlier and was like being hit over the head with a club.

So far, there has been no talk of changes to the cast of the piece, which is a dramatization of one of Tremblay's recent memoirs. The play stars Rita Lafontaine, undoubtedly the person who has worked most closely with both Tremblay and Brassard, ever since she appeared in Les Belles Soeurs, the production that propelled them all to stardom in 1968 (coincidentally, at TRV). In 1998, Brassard directed and appeared as the "Tremblay" character in Encore une fois, si vous permettez, with Lafontaine as the mother.

René Richard Cyr is no stranger to Tremblay or to Brassard. As a director he has staged revivals of several Tremblay plays including Bonjour, là, bonjour, and À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou. As an actor, he gave an acclaimed performance in a revival of Hosanna, and was directed by Brassard in the original production of Michel Marc Bouchard's Les Feluettes.

Brassard confirmed to Dumas that the Centaur cancellation was indeed due to his health problems.

Gordon flash

Centaur artistic director Gordon McCall has spent much of the summer in Australia, directing Cheech, by local playwright François Letourneau for the Melbourne Theatre Company. The production, which opened Aug. 10 and continues until Sept. 24, is part of a cultural exchange initiated by McCall that brought the MTC artistic director to Montreal last fall to direct Burnt Piano, by young Aussie playwright Justin Fleming.

The play, which McCall will also produce in March as part of Centaur's "Montreal Stories" season, is described as "compelling theatre, but not for the prudish or the easily shocked." Letourneau's play, which premiered at La Licorne early in 2003, is about several players in Montreal's thriving sex industry. There seems to be some disagreement about its subtitle; it's either The Chrysler Guys Are in Town (Melbourne), or The Guys From Chrysler Are in Town (Centaur). On his return to town, McCall jumps right in to direct Condoville, in which playwright David Fennario revisits the neighbourhood and some of the characters from his landmark 1979 play Balconville. It opens the Centaur season Oct. 4.

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