Maureen MARTINEAU

Maureen Martineau is a native of Hull, Québec, where she began acting with different companies in the Ottawa region. She pursued her theatre training at the Université du Québec in Montreal. She co-founded le Théâtre de la Bascule in Montreal’s South-Central working class district where she worked for three years before moving to Victoriaville to join le Théâtre Parminou. In the past 25 years, she has worked with this politically committed company as an actress, writer and director. She has received two Canada Council grants to study theatre in Eastern Europe, and attended workshops in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Rumania. In recent years, she has specialized in theatre as a tool for social change, exploring and experimenting in a variety of non-theatrical contexts.
(Photo : Sylvain Lafleur) – 7/06

 
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Titles in alphabetical order
Planet Poverty Their Silent Consent
 
Planet Poverty
  English translation by Joan Ralph.
  Original title: La Planète pauvre
Running time
  1 hour 45
Cast
  2 W, 2 M
Synopsis
  Planet Poverty depicts characters taking their fate into their own hands; fleeing poverty like the plague, and hoping that things will be better elsewhere. They are running away from unemployment, but poverty always catches up with them. In the intersecting odysseys of Nancy and Cecilia, Asia meets America, North meets South.
Excerpt
  « FELIPE: They told me I could improve the crops. They offered to lend me the money. I was getting a better crop. I paid back the loan. The next year I had to borrow more money to buy more pesticides, more insecticides. Because there was more insects, more weeds. They made money from my need. I'm afraid I can't pay back. »
Press review
  "The play lends a human face to the despair of society’s economic outcasts, here, wherever there is obscene poverty, and even terror, as in the slums of Manila. Through the use of startling testimonies and illustrations, the play debunks the abstract formulas of reigning economic theories." Jean St-Hilaire, Le Soleil, Québec City, 1996.

 
Their Silent Consent
  Written in collaboration with le Théâtre Parminou, Yves Séguin.
  English translation by Jill Mac Dougall.
  Original title: Le Silence des autres
Running time
  1 hour 15
Cast
  2 W, 2 M, 1 M.C.
Synopsis
  The play presents two women, Danièle and Gabrièle. Two stories unfold simultaneously, one in a hospital kitchen, the other in an engineering office. The play throws a monkey wrench into the machinery of sexual harassment in the workplace. One by one, it breaks the links in this complex mechanism. It also invites theatregoers to assume the uncomfortable role of witness and interact in the situations presented. It provides a role that confers the best of all powers, the power to change everything.
Press review
  "We are reminded of what we tend to forget: emotional integrity is as precious as physical integrity, and when attacked, it too bears deep wounds." Jean St-Hilaire, Le Soleil, Québec City, 1994.

 
PLAYS AVAILABLE AT CEAD (Some notes in French may appear below)
  Les contes de la richesse [2007], in collaboration with Réjean Bédard, Michel Cormier, Hélène Desperrier,
Nitassinan. Notre terre [2007]
Visage à trois faces (version communautaire) [YA] [2007]
Les pierres précieuses (création communautaire) [YA] [2005]
Miroir [YA] [2005]
Res publica [2004-2006]
Visage à trois faces [YA] [2002-2004]
Des miettes pour les pigeons [1996]
La planète pauvre [YA] [1995]
Mon paradis d'enfer [1995]
À temps pour L'Indian Time [1993], in collaboration with Réjean Bédard, Hélène Desperrier, le Théâtre Parminou,
Chut! c'est un secret [1992], in collaboration with Hélène Desperrier, le Théâtre Parminou, François Roux, Yves Séguin, Sonia Vachon
Les bleus amoureux [1992], in collaboration with Réjean Bédard, le Théâtre Parminou, François Roux, Yves Séguin
Parole d'or, silence d'argent [1992], in collaboration with le Théâtre Parminou,
L'effet secondaire [1991], in collaboration with Hélène Desperrier,
Les pétards à mèche célestes [1991], in collaboration with Réjean Bédard, Yves Dagenais, Hélène Desperrier, le Théâtre Parminou, François Roux, Yves Séguin, Sonia Vachon
Dans de beaux draps [1990-1991], in collaboration with Hélène Desperrier, François Roux
La vie à l'an vert [YA] [1990-1991], in collaboration with Hélène Desperrier,
Pas de vacances pour les anges [1990], in collaboration with le Théâtre Parminou, Nicole-Éva Morin, Louise Proulx, Patric Saucier
 
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)
  Les contes de la richesse [2007]
Written in collaboration with Réjean Bédard, Michel Cormier, Hélène Desperrier.
First production in French: Théâtre Parminou, automne 2007
Running time: 1 hour 15
Cast: 1 W 1 M
The French title is a phonetic pun fixed with the words account (compte) and tale (conte). In this play, two very candid characters, through the using of accessories found in garbage cans, ask the world and themselves naive questions about the complexity of the calculation of the richness of a country, gross domestic product, indicators of economic growth, indicators of human development. Their images are simple and accessible.

Nitassinan. Notre terre [2007]
First production in French: Théâtre Parminou et École Amishk de Mashteuiatsh, December 2007
Running time: 1 hour 10
Cast: 16 W 11 M
With poetry and awareness, this text speaks of the First Nations love for their territory, ground and the nourishing forest. The story, delivered here by a narrator, called the Source, and played by actors playing the trees, a bear and the members the same big family --, is the adventure of a great hunting season through a territory which narrows unceasingly, swallowed by “the greedy people”. Such as water springing out of the ground, the past must be transmitted to the young generations as a true way of living and not only surviving.

Miroir [Young Audiences - Children] [2005]
First production in French: Théâtre Parminou, 2005
Running time: 50 minutes
Cast: 1 W 1 M
Les jeunes spectateurs sont transportés dans le monde d’Alexia et de Thomas qui tentent, du haut de leurs 12 ans, de se construire une meilleure estime d’eux-mêmes.

Res publica [2004-2006]
First production in French: Théâtre Parminou, January 2006
Running time: 1 hour
Cast: 1 W 1 M
Two clowns, Baloune and Lulu, investigate the notion of common good. " Whose is the rain? Is the Earth the property of...the Earth? Who was its first owner? Privatization threatens our natural resources. Res publica widens the concept of the common good to our collective concerns in health, educational and rights. Who decides on whom decide? says Baloune and Lulu. The reflection is shared here with the public, the goal not being to find the good answers but rather the real questions.

Visage à trois faces [Young Audiences - Children] [2002-2004]
First production in French: Théâtre Parminou, January 2002
Running time: 1 hour
Cast: 1 W 1 M
Threats, manipulations and blackmail in a Grade 6 classroom. The play proposes a masked game, through which the characters will adopt the typical behaviors of the "boss", the "reject" and the "docile follower". The true faces of the characters, revealed under their mask, testifies of the possibility they have in escaping these roles they are trapped into.

Des miettes pour les pigeons [1996]
First production in French: Théâtre Parminou, 1996
Running time: 50 minutes
Cast: 1 W 1 M
Voyage philosophique et rigolo dans l’univers pourtant noir de la pauvreté. Deux pauvres parmi les pauvres, constatent qu’ils sont de moins en moins seuls dans leur état.