by AMY BARRATT

When you're an Algerian-born actor working in Montreal on a show about the Algerian immigrant experience, art not only imitates life, it becomes inextricably entwined with it.

That has been the case for some of the actors in Projet porte parole's latest documentary play, Montréal la blanche, opening tomorrow at the Monument-National.

"Everything we're working on," says director Philippe Ducros, "we can talk with the people who are in the show and around the show. A lot of them lived the experience. Saïd Benyoucef, who does the main character, is Algerian. Some people who we're talking about in the show, he knows personally. Some of them who were actually killed were his friends."

When Projet porte parole (PPP) decided to take on this topic, it was imperative that they find artists with roots in the Maghreb (or Northwest African) community. Although everyone in the cast is a professional actor, they're faces we don't get to see that often - at least not in leading roles.

Like all of PPP's projects, the text of Montréal la blanche is composed entirely of real interviews. In the past, PPP co-founder Annabel Soutar has been the one to organize reams of research material into a theatrical form. This time, because of the nature of the material and the demands of motherhood, she and her partner, co-founder Alex Ivanovici, are busy being the proud parents of Ella, who turns one this month. Soutar handed the job to documentary filmmaker Bachir Bensaddek. Ivanovici, who has had a very busy acting year, including turns in Hedda Gabler at the Saidye and infinitheatre's Barnacle Wood, ceded his usual place in the director's chair to Ducros. Soutar and Ivanovici have contributed to the artistic process primarily as "outside eyes," watching the odd run-through and offering feedback. They and Ducros also collaborated with Bensaddek on the "packaging" of the material, crafting a story out of the transcribed interviews.

In Montréal la blanche, seven actors play multiple roles, reflecting a wide variety of Algerian-québécois. (Originally, the project was going to focus on people from Morocco and Tunisia as well, but the stories of Algerians fleeing fundamentalism and civil war were so compelling they decided to focus on the Algerian stories this time so as not to dilute the topic.)

Benyoucef's character is based on a taxi driver Bensaddek rode around with one night. Other characters include a female agricultural engineer trying to qualify to work in Quebec and a retired immigration officer who is haunted by some of the decisions he made in his career. The title of the piece refers to the expression "une nuit blanche," meaning a sleepless night. Theatregoers don't need to worry about being kept up all night; the show starts at 7:30.

Playwrights' workshop birthday blowout

Mary Walsh Alert! In honour of its 40th (!) birthday, Playwrights' Workshop Montreal is having what it describes as a "blowout," complete with sushi bar, featuring performances by many special guests and hosted by Walsh and writer Ed Macdonald this Monday, May 10, at Kola Note (5240 du Parc), $30–$40, 843-3685.

Next up at McGill Players Theatre: an adaptation of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest set in the 1920s. Directed by Jana Van Geest, it runs May 6–8, at 8 p.m., with a matinee at 2 p.m. on the 8th.

Montréal la blanche runs May 7–29, 7:30pm, at the Studio Theatre of the Monument-National (1182 St-Laurent, 871-2224), $22–$25

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