Controversy and collaboration

>> Bilingualism, Tremblay as translator and T.O. imports star in theatres this fall

by AMY BARRATT

The theatre season took off amid controversy earlier this month over competing French and English language productions of Donald Margulies' Collected Stories (Droits d'auteurs). Uta Hagen, the great American actress and teacher, stars at the Saidye, while québécoise Francoise Faucher does the honours at Théâtre Jean-Duceppe. Collected Stories (see review in sidebar) closes Sept. 28. Droits d'auteurs continues through Oct. 14.

The remainder of the season promises more collaboration than conflict between English and French theatre artists. Michael Mackenzie's Farce, just opened at Espace Libre, sets the tone. It's a bilingual collaboration between Théâtre Omnibus and infinitheatre. Directed by Jean Asselin, it runs until Oct. 14. Infini is also participating, for the second year in a row, in Les Journées de la culture, with two performances of Pals, by Seymour Blicker at bar/restaurant La Cabane. That's Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at 3 p.m, free.

Imago theatre resurfaces in November in a little space that's only recently been discovered by English-language companies and audiences. Théâtre Prospero will house Imago's back-to-back English and French productions of Parle-moi des tigres--Tell Me About Tigers by Robert Kastenbaum, Nov. 15-26.

The MAI centre teams up with the Fringe festival this fall to present a series of one-person shows in English and French. The plays have not yet been named, but the Festival SOLO will take place at the MAI Oct. 25-Nov. 5.

We heart Toronto

The English mainstages continue to suffer from a certain Toronto-philia. Centaur begins its season on a promising note with Glenn, an imaginative portrait of pianist Glenn Gould by David Young (Fire, Inexpressible Island). Directed by Richard Rose, Glenn is a co-production with Toronto's Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Sept. 26-Oct. 22.

Following last year's A Streetcar Named Desire, the Saidye once again hosts Toronto's Soulpepper company in November with a production of Betrayal, Harold Pinter's famous experiment with chronology. The play starts at the end of a relationship and works its way back. Directed by Daniel Brooks. Oct. 31-Nov. 26.

Concordia's Theatre department is also into Pinter this semester. They'll be presenting four short sketches by the man of few words directed by Kate Bligh. Oct. 19-29 at the D.B. Clarke.

M. Tremblay, would you translate my play?

Michel Tremblay's own plays aren't much in evidence on this season's calendar, but he's all over the place as a translator. His version of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf opens next week at Théâtre du Rideau Vert with Louise Marleau as Martha and Raymond Cloutier as George. Directed by Martin Faucher, Sept. 26-Oct. 21.

Tremblay has also tackled a lesser-known Tennessee Williams work, Not About Nightingales. Translated as Rien à voir avec les rossignols, it will be performed by Compagnie Jean-Duceppe from Oct. 25-Dec. 2. Directed by Serge Denoncourt.

Later in the Duceppe season comes one of the weirdest pairings of this or any other year. Local anglo Fringe playwright Steve Galluccio (Peter and Paul Get Mary'd) gets produced at one of the most mainstream French-language houses in the city, Duceppe. Galluccio sent the script of Mambo Italiano to Tremblay, Tremblay liked it, translated it, and next thing you know, it's in a subscription season. Plays that require any sort of intimacy--anything not on the scale of say, Oedipus Rex--always have to do battle with the size of the house and the stage itself at Duceppe. Galluccio's plays have traditionally been staged in tiny, under-equipped spaces; so it's anybody's guess whether Mambo Italiano will wither or thrive in the "legit" world,

Dec. 13-20 and continuing after New Year's.

Speaking of going legit, it's Wajdi Mouawad's first season as artistic director of Quat'Sous, and he has chosen an international lineup of contemporary playwrights virtually unknown to Canadian audiences. First up--not counting the current remount of Je suis une mouette--is Le Colonel oiseau, by Bulgarian Hristo Boytchev, directed by actor Peter Batakliev, Oct. 23-Dec. 2.

Finally, Mask On! presents its eagerly awaited next show at Théâtre Prospero Oct. 31-Nov. 11. Clueless is billed as a "murder mystery comedy." :

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