Yvan BIENVENUE

Yvan Bienvenue is a poet and a playwright. After graduating from the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada and before pursuing a career in writing, he worked as an actor, performing and teaching improvisation workshops in Montreal and Saint-Hyacinthe. He has written for radio, film and stage and currently teaches poetry at the National Theatre School of Canada. In 1992 he co-founded the Théâtre Urbi et Orbi in Montreal which produces Les Contes urbains every season, « Les Contes urbains », a concept adapted in many Canadian cities. He is also a founding member of Dramaturges Éditeurs, a Montreal publishing house commited to publish contemporary drama. Histoires à mourir d’amour, his collection of three plays including In Vitro, was shortlisted for the 1994 Governor General’s Literary Award in French drama. Yvan Bienvenue won the 1997 Governor General’s Literary Award for his play, Règlement de contes. Four of Bienvenue's Urban Tales were played in a Mexican translation by Boris Schoemann in Mexico City in 2003 and 2004. – 2008-01-13
(Photo : Violette Bourget)

 
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When available, click on the image to learn more about the publication , the cast , the set or other 's activities around the play.
Titles in alphabetical order
In Vitro Unsettling Accounts
 
Unsettling Accounts
  English translation by Shelley Tepperman.
  Original title: Règlement de contes (Éditions Les Herbes Rouges, 1995).
First production
  Crows Theatre (Toronto), March 1997
Running time
  1 hour 15
Cast
  1 M and 2 walk-on actors (1 W, 1 M)
Synopsis
  Stéphane is appalled by the acts of fascists of every stripe. He confronts some skinheads who have just desecrated a Jewish cemetery, then takes refuge on the doorstep of Bessie, his Black lover, where he reflects on the insanity of hatemongers and on his difficult relationship with Bessie.
Excerpt
  « STÉPHANE : I hurt Bessie | I hurt all over | I feel like crying | Play me something | I'll write you a poem | and when I come up | i'll give it to you | You know that | without love | a poet is nothing | […] Help me be clear and true | like love | It's only hate | that wears hoods. »
Press review
  "Yvan Bienvenue’s raw, angry and beautifully poetic Règlement de contes is a potent reminder that we can still stand up to be counted, and that even a straight, white, Catholic male cannot only empathize with all of our racial, religious and sexual minorities, but he can even be passionately moved to oppose those who hate them." Aurèle Parisien, Hour, October 12, 1996.

 
In Vitro More about the publication
  English translation by Shelley Tepperman. Published by Scirocco Drama, Winnipeg, 1995.
  Original title: In vitro (précédé de Lettre d'amour pour une amante inavouée et de Les Foufs, sous le titre de Histoires à mourir d'amour, Les Herbes rouges, 1994).
This translation was made possible by CEAD and Playwrighs' Workshop Montreal.
First production
  National Arts Centre Atelier, Ottawa, 1995
Running time
  1 hour 10
Cast
  1 W, 2 M  More about the cast   More about the the suggested set
Speed-Metal Music
Synopsis
  After her fiancé tries to convert a fugitive who has broken into their home armed with a 12 gauge shotgun and a jar containing a dead fœtus, a young born-again Christian is trapped as the two men barter for her soul.
Excerpt
  « ISABELLE : You killed the doctor. / FRANÇOIS : I had ta stop him from killing my son. / BENOÎT : Would you like us to pray together, Frank? / ISABELLE : Wasn't it a bit late for that? »
Press review
  "This is fierce writing, rife with danger, violence and revolt. Like many playwrights of his generation, the thirty year old author dips his pen into pitch black ink." Marie Labrecque, Voir, February 10, 1993.

 
PLAYS AVAILABLE AT CEAD (Some notes in French may appear below)
  Mort de peine [2009] (Dramaturges Éditeurs, 2009)
La vie continue [2008] (Dramaturges Éditeurs, 2008)
Dits et inédits 3 [2001-2002] (Dramaturges Éditeurs, 2004)
Le lit de mort [1999] (Dramaturges Éditeurs, 1999)
Baby-Blue [YA] [1998] (dans Les zurbains en série, Dramaturges Éditeurs, 2005)
Bill [1998] (in Contes urbains Ottawa, Le Nordir, 1999; in Dits et inédits 2, Dramaturges Éditeurs, 2001)
Dits et inédits 2 [1997-2000] (Dramaturges Éditeurs, 2001)
Cé comme que si que [YA] [1997] (in Les Zurbains, Dramaturges Éditeurs, 1997)
Dits et inédits [1997] (Dramaturges Éditeurs, 1997)
L'ange exterminateur [1997] (in Dits et inédits, Dramaturges Éditeurs, 1997 et dans Contes d'appartenance, Éditions Prise de parole, Sudbury, 1999)
La complainte de Jean-Pierre Beaudry [1997] (in Dits et inédits, Dramaturges Éditeurs, 1997)
Marie Christmas [1997] (in Contes urbains, Mœbius n° 75, hiver 1997)
38 métiers 38 mégères [1996] (in 38 A , Dramaturges Éditeurs, 1996)
Je suis un homme mort [1996]
Ordonnance de non-publication [1996] (in Contes urbains, Mœbius n° 71, hiver 1996)
Cocaline [1995] (in Contes urbains, Mœbius n° 66, hiver 1996; dans Dits et inédits, Dramaturges éditeurs, 1997)
Joyeux Noël Julie [1994] (in Règlement de contes, Éditions Les Herbes rouges, 1995; dans Mœbius, n° 66, hiver 1996; in Dits et inédits, Dramaturges éditeurs, 1997)
Règlement de contes [1994] (Éditions Les Herbes Rouges, 1995)
Modus vivendi [1993]
In vitro [1992] (précédé de Lettre d'amour pour une amante inavouée et de Les Foufs, sous le titre de Histoires à mourir d'amour, Les Herbes rouges, 1994)
Les Foufs [1991] (précédé de Lettre d'amour pour une amante inavouée et In vitro, sous le titre de Histoires à mourir d'amour, Les Herbes Rouges, 1994)
Lettre d'amour pour une amante inavouée [1989] (p. 7-58 suivi de In vitro et Les Foufs, sous le titre de Histoires à mourir d'amour, Les Herbes Rouges, 1994, 160 p.)
TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS
  Beaver (en français) [2005], translation of Beaver by Claudia Dey
Gagarin way [2002], translation of Gagarin Way by Gregory Burke
Sexe, drogue, rock & roll [1997], translation of Sex, Drug and Rock & Roll by Eric Bogosian
 
PLAYS NOT YET TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH (Running time: 1 hour and more. Written and produced in French since 2000. Some notes in French may appear below)
  La vie continue [2008]
Published by Dramaturges Éditeurs, 2008.
First production in French: Coproduction du TOF (Théâtre Officiel del Farfadet) et du Collectif d’artistes Chambr'Amie, April 2008
Running time: 1 hour 45
Cast: 2 W 3 M
December 23rd, two days before Christmas. In the afternoon, the Infectiology Department of a big hospital receives an unusual clientele summoned by a letter. Names and addresses of these persons appeared on a list left by a young man before dying of AIDS. However, none of these persons seems to know the author of this list. It is storming both outside and inside … What link unites them all?