by AMY BARRATT

One of the most acclaimed productions of last season is back on stage at La Licorne. Originally mounted at the MAI, L'Inoublié ou Marcel Pomme-dans-l'eau: un récit-fleuve is an autobiographical creation by Marcel Pomerlo, one of the founding members of Momentum.

Sparked by a gruesome accident that takes place just outside the narrator's home, L'Inoublié becomes a meditation on childhood and loss. The stage is dominated by a series of receptacles, from drinking glasses and delicate bowls to three large bins big enough to wade in. As the playwright-performer describes how for five-year-old M.P., learning to swim was all about conquering death, these shimmering containers remind us that grief is always there just waiting to overflow. Born in the summer that Marilyn Monroe died, Pomerlo brings in pop culture references that connect the story to all of our lives, particularly those of us near his age. Never self-indulgent, Pomerlo's creation sends us back out into the street feeling both more fragile and more alive than when we went in.

Facing MECCA

The following are the winners of the Montreal English Critics Circle Awards (MECCAs) for the 2002–03 season:

Best Actor: Gareth Armstrong for a tour-de-force performance in Shylock at the Saidye.

Best Actress: Michelle Monteith as Laura in The Glass Menagerie, also at Saidye, narrowly beat out Rosemary Dunsmore as Amanda in the same production.

Best Director: For the second year in a row it's Madd Harold, this time for Coriolanus, with Gravy Bath Productions.

Best Design or Look went to Ana Cappelluto and Guido Tondino for Centaur's Copenhagen.

Best Professional Production: None. The critics found this to be a weak category this year. Only two shows, The Glass Menagerie and A Common Man's Guide to Loving Women, were even nominated. No one show struck us as good enough to be called the best.

Best Production, Amateur or Semi-Pro: A majority of the English shows produced in the city fall into this category, which simply means that the companies do not as a rule pay union wages. Over a dozen productions were nominated, but the MECCA went to Gravy Bath's Coriolanus.

Best Visiting Production: Devotion, a Fringe entry written and directed by Mary Fulham of Watson Arts in New York.

Best New Text: Catherine Kidd, for her performance-poetry piece, Sea Peach.

Best Ensemble: The four guys in Black Theatre Workshop's A Common Man's Guide to Loving Women: Quincy Armorer, Chimwemwe Miller, Omari Newton, Lindsay Owen Pierre.

The Distinction Award, given to a company or individual for a significant contribution to the theatre scene over a number of years, went to Projet porte-parole.

The Revelation of the Year is Renegade Productions, an impressive young company founded by Jory Kevin Berger and Manuel Verreydt.

Finally, it was decided that a Special Jury Award was needed this year to honour an event that didn't fit into any of the usual categories. Without a Parachute, A Benefit Evening for David Fennario, held at the Centaur last September, was a moving evening of art and politics bringing the community together to help the ailing playwright.

L'INOUBLIÉ CONTINUES THROUGH SEPT. 27 AT LA LICORNE (4559 PAPINEAU), 523-2246. IT WILL ALSO TOUR THE CITY'S MAISONS DE LA CULTURE IN OCT. AND NOV. AS PART OF THE CAM'S JOUER DANS L'ILE PROGRAM.

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