Season 2018-2019

Théâtre français de Toronto (TfT) announces its 2018/19 youth programming including four shows specifically conceived for children, teenagers and their families. For its 51st season, the company has also initiated several initiatives to deepen ties with audiences of all ages and the city’s schools.

New activities include the addition of a second show designed for teenagers to accompany the popular Les Zinspirés. In order to create Impatience, the internationally renowned director Anne-Marie Ouellet will work with three GTA secondary schools during the fall to introduce adolescents to her performance-based project. Teenage participants will select topics to be explored and then share the stage with professional actors in February at the Berkeley Street Theatre. In April, another first: TfT welcomes a show that features sign language. Traversée (Crossed) tells the story of a refugee immersed in the silent world of a mute caregiver who sends her on a journey to find her real mother. During the same period, TfT is collaborating with Alliance française de Toronto to present Le Bibliothécaire (The Librarian), a physical clown show which will delight younger children and their companions.

Workshops, school visits and an enhanced arts education program have been added to this season’s program. Arts education initiatives include Saturday morning classes, summer classes for children, long-term collaborative agreements with selected schools, and a growing relationship with the WeeFestival in order to foster access to theatre for francophone children under six. Finally, some school matinees will be given with English surtitles for students from schools offering introductory level French programs.

TfT Artistic Director Joël Beddows designed this enhanced youth-centered program because children and teenagers “deserve a theatre that lives up to their expectations” while introducing them to “current stage and theatrical trends.” Beddows continues, “I want to make youth theatre a spearhead of TfT, of equal importance to its creative projects and original productions for the general public.” This emphasis on children and adolescents underscores the company’s desire to remain accessible and as open as possible while maintaining the highest artistic standards.

TfT is clearly in step with its time. Toronto’s French-language school boards are growing with the opening of four new schools in September 2017 and two new ones in 2018. Immersion programs have never been so popular in English language school boards. TfT thereby occupies a privileged place in the cultural life of students from diverse backgrounds throughout the GTA and southern Ontario and remains, more than ever, anchored in a community looking proudly to the future.

For Canadian artists and audiences, the mention of classical theatre creates expectations, particularly with regard to the form of a work and the themes it addresses. What a delight, then, to see how much The Second Surprise of Love foils our expectations in so many ways.

To begin with, what do we make of the characters of the Marquise and Lisette? Not only are they partners in crime, but they’re in charge – no one can doubt that the power in this play rests with the women. Despite the persistence of certain gendered stereotypes punctuating the piece here and there, the principle of free will is vigorously defended as the only possible determinant of love.

As for form, to the contemporary ear, the choice of vocabulary, the verb tenses used, the complexity of certain sentences can give the impression of a wordy and over-written script. And yet a more careful analysis reveals that Marivaux’s characters exist in a universe where spontaneity takes precedence over reason. Instead of thinking, they react – and they do so without anticipating the consequences of their actions. As a result, they put themselves in danger by virtue of their many unforeseen romantic discoveries. It is here especially, I believe, that one detects the influence of the Italian commedia dell’arte that has inspired Marivaux’s work.

Certainly, because of the importance of women in this play and the fact that they can say what they actually think, the ending is a surprise. Furthermore, it seems that the plot could end at any time. For these reasons, to mount Marivaux requires melding action and speech so that they become one. Here, to paraphrase the expression, “to say” really is “to do.”

In such a world, there is endless pleasure for both the actors and the audience. Here, a widowed Marquise and an abandoned knight unite through their refusal to fall in love a second time; the first left too many scars. The second time round is not only a surprise, but dangerous.

Clearly, both form and content have inspired me to present this play.

Joël Beddows

TfT launches its 51st season!

The 2018-2019 season draws on the words of artists from Toronto and around the world, a season of “Giving Voice” (Paroles manifestes) echoing the theme of “outbursts” (Éclats manifestes) from TfT’s 50^th season. Audiences are invited to discover not only why key artists take position today, but also how. As such, each production is an exploration of “theatre as language”, and how messages, arguments and joy are uniquely expressed through theatre.  According to TfT’s Artistic Director: “Each play is an opportunity to discover the Other through their story and how they choose to tell it”.

The new season is as eclectic as TfT’s audience – and the Artistic Director’s aesthetic interests. Thus, works by well-known creators from Canada and abroad will be presented for several weeks alongside shorter runs for certain shows and events.

GENERAL AUDIENCE

The season begins with La Seconde Surprise de l’amour (The Second Surprise of Love), a TfT production on stage October 17-28. This comedy by Marivaux will be directed by Joël Beddows, who continues his exploration of the classical repertoire (Dom Juan and The Liar) as a way to study the complexities of lying in contemporary social relations.

From May 1 to 4, 2019, the TfT presents Écoutez nos défaites (Listen to Our Defeats), a Franco-Canadian co-production adapted from a novel by Laurent Gaudé, winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2004, and staged by renowned French director Roland Auzet. This gripping spy story will thrill audiences as they witness a riveting confrontation between two secret agents.

TfT is also excited to collaborate with Canadian Stage to present two exceptional shows that have enjoyed resounding success in Europe. From April 11 to 21, 2019, we follow the misadventures of three neighbours in Bigre, Pierre Guillois’s wordless show, winner of the Molière Prize for Best Comedy in 2017. Tiago Rodrigues, the National Theatre of Lisbon Artistic Director, will close the season on May 29, 2019. His show Par Coeur (By Heart) invites 10 audience members to learn by heart a short text that could be shared with Tiago’s grandmother, who is rapidly losing her sight and the ability to read.

YOUNG AUDIENCES

To attract a new generation of theatregoers, TfT will present four plays for young audiences for the first time in the same season. First up is the seventh edition of Les Zinspirés: l’âge de raison (Les Zinspirés: The Age of Reason), (November 30-December 5), a chance to hear gripping stories penned by teenage writers as directed by Chanda Gibson. On March 1st, 2019, other teenagers will share their reality on stage alongside professional actors in Impatience, a performance piece created by director Anne-Marie Ouellet. TfT then presents Estelle Savasta’s Traversée (Passage) on April 26^th, 2019, the story of Nour, who travels to a distant land in search of her mother. This stunning show directed by Milena Busiak brings sign language to the stage: the hearing-impaired actor Hodan Youssouf expresses herself using LSQ (langage des signes québécois) throughout the performance. Finally, TfT and Alliance Française de Toronto (AFT) are teaming up to present Le Bibliothécaire (The Librarian), created by Marie-Hélène d’Amours and Hippolyte, a show for children and their allies presented on April 28, 2019 at the Spadina Theatre.

TOURING

TfT is also touring shows outside Ontario. Avant l’archipel (Countries Shaped Like Stars) by Emily Pearlman (L’Irréductible Petit Peuple / Théâtre la Catapulte / TfT) will hit the road for a series of performances in New Brunswick and Montreal. Le Dire de Di (The Telling of Tel) by Michel Ouellette (Théâtre la Catapulte / TfT) will be performed at La Nouvelle Scène Gilles-Desjardins (Ottawa) and Théâtre Prospero (Montreal). Exercice de l’oubli (Exercises in Forgetting) by Emma Haché (Théâtre populaire d’Acadie / TfT) will premiere in January 2019 and tour throughout New Brunswick before stopping in Toronto in the fall of 2019.

PARTNERSHIPS 

TfT continues to collaborate with AFT. The two institutions will once again present Regards croisés (Converging Views), a film series that twins films with TfT’s 2018-2019 season shows. The TfT is also partnering with AFT’s summer camps, offering children an opportunity to learn French through the dramatic arts. Collaborations with AFT and Canadian Stage are part of an outreach strategy to enhance TfT’s visibility in the Greater Toronto Area.

PROJECT DEVELOPPEMENT

TfT continues to fulfill its role as a project incubator, welcoming once again Alain Doom as playwright-in-residence. His text, Le Club des éphémères (The Ephemerals Club), will be the subject of a series of workshops. The company is also providing studio time to Lina Blais and Nathalie Nadon for the development of their project L’Affaires des Bacchantes (The Bacchante Affair) as well as to Chanda Gibson and Sophie Goulet, for a spatial exploration of Jean Genet’s The Maids. Finally, TfT and Beddows will be working with internationally known Toronto playwright Marie-Claire Marcotte on her project Flush.

At a time when Francophones from the four corners of the world are an ever increasing presence in the city, TfT remains a meeting place for audiences and artists from here and elsewhere. Because of our commitment to the democratization of art, we continue to offer English surtitles, Pay-what-you-can evenings on Thursdays, and school matinees.