CHAURETTE Normand - Catalogue des traductions des membres du CEAD -

Normand CHAURETTE

Normand Chaurette was born in Montreal in 1954. Since 1980, he has written fifteen plays, most of which have been published by Leméac Éditeur. Mr. Chaurette is well known in Québec and in France where Le Passage de l’Indiana was first produced at the Festival d’Avignon in 1996 and Les Reines (The Queens) was produced at the Comédie française (Théâtre du Vieux Colombier), Normand Chaurette has been the recipient of many prizes, including the Prix Paul Gilson in 1976, the Chalmers Award for an Outstanding Canadian Play in 1993, The Governor General’s Literary Award and the Grand Prix de la Fondation Beaumarchais (France) in 1996, both for his own plays and for his translations of Shakespeare.
(Photo : Pierre and Marthe Filion) 2009-01-19

Icon Legend
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

All the Verdis of Venice

Fragments of a Farewell Letter Read by Geologists

Provincetown Playhouse, July 1919

The Concise Köchel

The Queens


The Concise Köchel
	English translation by Linda Gaboriau. Published by Talonbooks, Vancouver, 2004.
	Original title: Le petit Köchel (Leméac / Actes Sud – Papiers, 2000). This translation was presented in a staged reading by Tarragon Theatre in collaboration with CEAD, Toronto, November 23 and 24, 2001.
Running time
	1 hour 15
Cast
	4 W (4W0M)
Synopsis
	Two sisters, both concert pianists, share the same house. Two musicologists arrive. The four women talk about their musical careers and the fact that they had to sacrifice their son to Mozart. The same son, has taken refuge in the cellar, chooses that very day to hang himself downstairs. How old is he by the way? And who is his true mother? The women are now impatient : the child is so demanding!
Excerpt
	« CECILE : And what if […] someone were to appear with a warrant, someone whose presence and intuition might increase the threat hovering over our beloved world of music? Do you want the families, already aware of the disappearance of the Heifetz sisters, to start wondering about the smell escaping from our cellar? »
Other translations
	Also available in German


All the Verdis of Venice
	English translation by Linda Gaboriau. Published by Talonbooks, Vancouver, 2000.
	Original title: Je vous écris du Caire (Leméac / Actes Sud – Papiers, 1994). This translation was presented in a public reading co-produced by CEAD and Playwrights’ Workshop at Montreal’s Festival de Theâtre des Amériques, June 4, 1995.
Running time
	2 hours
Cast
	1 W, 4 M (1W4M)
Synopsis
	This is a play about the megalomaniacal, tragic and passionate world of opera. Surrounded by the director of Milan’s La Scala, a retired baritone and the young diva, Teresa Stoltz, with whom he is very much taken, composer Giuseppe Verdi is forced to write his opera, Don Carlo, for political reasons.
Excerpt
	« VERDI : What? La Stolz is here? / THE DIRECTOR : Bring her in. (Terziani exits.) / VERDI : La Stolz? Not La Stolz! / THE DIRECTOR : Didn't you say publicly that you wanted to hear her again? In private? Your wishes are our desires, Maestro. / VERDI : Never. I will not be part of your scheming. »
Press review
	"Rarely has a playwright mixed genres, historical facts, comedy, passion and drama with such dexterity, such imagination. In Je vous écris du Caire, theatre slips into the wings at the opera." Jean Beaunoyer, La Presse, October 30, 1995.
Other translations
	Also available in Italian


The Queens
	English translation by Linda Gaboriau. Published by Talonbooks, Vancouver, 1998.
	Original title: Les reines (Leméac / Actes Sud – Papiers, 1991). This translation was workshopped at Banff Playwrights’ Colony, 1992.
First production
	Canadian Stage Company (Toronto), 1992
Running time
	2 hours
Cast
	6 W (6W0M)
Synopsis
	It is London, 1483. From the aged Duchess of York, who is 99 years old, and will never sit on the throne, to the young Lady Anne, who will marry Richard III in order to reign, the playwright traces the shifting passions and ambitions of six women drawn from Shakespeare’s theatre and portrayed here in the timelessness of their quest which, like that of all queens, is both visceral and political.
Excerpt
	« ANNE DEXTER: Feed them \| With… tender love! \| Yes \| Before everything comes toppling down \| In this single day \| We will have seen and heard \| Everything \| Our walls are crumbling \| Under the grip of frost \| We no longer know \| Whether it is day or night \| The king is collapsing \| And the universe along with him \| Our household is at the mercy \| Of the intruders from the House of Warwick \| And I hear my mother \| Utter the words "tender love" \| Can I trust my ears? \| "Tender love" \| On my mother's lips! \| Look at me \| Look at me and say it again. / DUCHESS OF YORK: I do not know you. »
Press review
	"The Queens combines an extreme refinement or subtlety of style with leanings to the abnormal or artificial in content. Ritual, as well, has its role to play. (...) For dramatic intensity and beauty of language and the craftsmanship of Classic Theatre’s staging, Chaurette’s The Queens is a must-see." Peter Whipkey, Dallas Voice, December 3, 1993.
Other translations
	Also available in Italian


Fragments of a Farewell Letter Read by Geologists
	English translation by Linda Gaboriau. Published by Talonbooks, Vancouver, 1998.
	Original title: Fragments d'une lettre d'adieu lus par des géologues (Leméac Éditeur, 1986; Actes Sud – Papiers, 2000). This translation was first presented in a staged reading by he Prairie Theatre Exchange, as part of a showcase project co-produced by CEAD, in Winnipeg, April 23, 1989.
First production
	Cahoots Theatre Projects, Toronto, 1991
Running time
	1 hour 45
Cast
	1 W, 6 M (1W6M)
Synopsis
	An engineer dies during an expedition to purify a river in Cambodia. His team of four geologists faces a commissioned inquiry with minutely detailed accounts which fail to elucidate the mysterious tragedy. Rational thought and scientific jargon cloud the way to real understanding. Only the Asian engineer called in at the last minute perceives what is essential.
Excerpt
	« CARLA VAN SAIKIN : They brought his bones back from the Mekong. In the final analysis, he was properly identified. Yes, it's him, yes, that's his sternum. "Your husband, Toni van Saikin, died in the course of the expedition and here is the proof." That's something he and I had in common : this enormous love, this passion for precision. Just as he was about to leave, I said to him : "The alluvium of these rivers contains natural properties I would like to analyse, I'd like to reduce them to a pure state, anyway, you'll see for yourself, and you'll write me…" Our last words! »
Press review
	"A massive and finally thrilling piece of post-modern writing about the relationship between man and nature, the decay of social idealism, the fact of death, and - above all - the moral and intellectual failure of late 20th century academic science (...) a text that confronts, with rare courage, some of the most frightening questions facing our civilisation as this century ends." Joyce McMillan, spectrum, Edinburgh, July 14, 1996.
Other translations
	Also available in Italian, Catalan


Provincetown Playhouse, July 1919
	English translation by William Boulet. Published by in Québec Voices – Three Plays, Coach House Press, Toronto, 1986.
	Original title: Provincetown Playhouse, juillet 1919, j'avais 19 ans (Leméac Éditeur, 1981). This translation was presented in a public reading co-produced by Ubu Repertory Theatre and CEAD, New York, October 17, 1984.
First production
	Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), December 1986
Running time
	1 hour 30
Cast
	4 M (0W4M)
Synopsis
	When the play opens, the central character, Charles Charles, is trying to get a hold on a memory and its meaning. The memory takes Charles Charles back nineteen years to the Provincetown Playhouse in the summer of 1919. That year at the Provincetown Playhouse, Charles Charles and two other young actors were accused of a hideous crime; a crime committed during the performance of a play they had written and staged. Who and what is on trial in the years following the alleged crime; the murderer, the writer, the memory or theatre itself?
Excerpt
	« CHARLES CHARLES 38 : The three suspects were arraigned before the Magistrate of the Court of Massachusetts this morning. All formally denied knowledge of the content of the bag. (Pause.) In your play, what was the bag supposed to contain? The judge asked young Winslow Byron. / CHARLES CHARLES 19 : "Alas, a child, Your Honour", he answered. »
Press review
	"(...) This wonderful text will one day be recognized for what it is : one of the most fascinating plays ever written in North America." Robert Lévesque, Le Devoir, June 4, 1985.
Other translations
	Also available in Italian

PLAYS AVAILABLE AT CEAD (Some notes in French may appear below)
	Ce qui meurt en dernier [2007] Le petit Köchel [A] [2000] (Leméac / Actes Sud – Papiers, 2000) Stabat mater II [1999] (Leméac Éditeur / Actes Sud – Papiers, 1999) Le passage de L'Indiana [1996] (Leméac / Actes Sud – Papiers, 1996) Petit navire [YA] [1996] (Heyoka Jeunesse / Leméac / Actes-Sud – Papiers, 1999 et, suivi d'un dossier de Christophe Lécullée chez Actes Sud Junior, 2006 ISBN 9 7 82742-763412) Stabat mater I [1996] (in Brèves d'ailleurs, Actes Sud – Papiers, 1997) Je vous écris du Caire [1993] (Leméac / Actes Sud – Papiers, 1994) Les reines [1991] (Leméac / Actes Sud – Papiers, 1991) Fragments d'une lettre d'adieu lus par des géologues [1986] (Leméac Éditeur, 1986; Actes Sud – Papiers, 2000) La société de Métis [1981-1982] (Leméac Éditeur, 1983) Provincetown Playhouse, juillet 1919, j'avais 19 ans [1978] (Leméac Éditeur, 1981) Fêtes d'automne [1976-1982] (Leméac Éditeur, 1982) Rêve d'une nuit d'hôpital [1975] (Leméac Éditeur, 1980)
TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS
	La tragédie d'Othello, le Maure de Venise [2006] (Auteurs dramatiques en ligne inc. – ADEL inc. 2008) Copie disponible pour le prêt au CEAD, translation of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moore of Venice by William Shakespeare La nuit des rois ou Ce que vous voudrez [2002] (Auteurs dramatiques en ligne inc. – ADEL inc., 2006) Copie disponible pour le prêt au CEAD, translation of Twelfth Night or What You Will by William Shakespeare La tragédie de Coriolan [1998] by William Shakespeare Roméo et Juliette [1998] (Auteurs dramatiques en ligne inc. – ADEL inc., 2006) Copie disponible pour le prêt au CEAD, translation of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare La tempête [1997] (Auteurs dramatiques en ligne inc. – ADEL inc., 2006) Copie disponible pour le prêt au CEAD, translation of The Tempest by William Shakespeare Hedda Gabler [1996], adaptation of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen Le songe d'une nuit d'été [1995] (Auteurs dramatiques en ligne inc. – ADEL inc., 2006) Copie disponible pour le prêt au CEAD, translation of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Marie Stuart [1995], adaptation of Marie Stuart Comme il vous plaira [1993] (Auteurs dramatiques en ligne inc. – ADEL inc., 2006) Copie disponible pour le prêt au CEAD, translation of As You Like it by William Shakespeare

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)

Ce qui meurt en dernier [2007]
First production in French: Coproduction du Théâtre UBU, du Théâtre Espace GO et du Théâtre français du Centre national des Arts du Canada, January 2008
Running time: 1 hour 30
Cast: 1 W 1 M
London 1888. By a misty evening, a woman is reading a novel inspired by the encounter of a countess and her killer. Recently, the police force has started inquiring about a so-called "Jack the Ripper" whith who people are so obsessed, it even forces London women to barricade themselves when evening comes. The reader first notes the strange similarities between herself and the main character, some woman named Martha. Physical appearances, perfumes, and even interior decoration. Suddenly, the sound of a carriage slowing down and stopping right in front of the house is heard. Steps in the staircase. A visit, one might fear and dream of at the same time, providing it remains fiction.