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I began writing this play with the reality of families during the pandemic in mind. At the height of lockdown, children had few escapes — they were constantly exposed to their parents' dramas. For some, the confinement must have created deep trauma. I worried about these children; I would wake up thinking about them, imagining them left to their own devices, without the social safety net that school or daycare can provide, and I worried. I wished I could find a way to be useful, and faced with the impossibility of protecting them, I wished they could know they were loved — that somewhere in the world, in the middle of an ordinary night, I was thinking of them. As the pandemic wore on, I also came to realize that a situation didn't need to border on horror to leave a mark on very young children. In short, the doors of homes were closed, and I longed to know what was happening behind them. Paradoxically, I had never seen so many children playing on the sidewalks of my street. The neighbourhood belonged to them once more.

Where had these children been playing before the pandemic? Did they even have time to play, between school, after-school activities… and the lives of adults?

I came to admit to myself that these questions didn't really belong to the pandemic — they belonged to the rhythm of my own family life. We grown-ups, pandemic or not, are often preoccupied and caught up in the race of our adult world… and it is sometimes hard to remain present for our children.

I wrote this play thinking about the loneliness of children within the well-constructed universe of grown-ups. I didn't want to depict an extreme situation of neglect either, so as to leave room for everyone to see themselves in it. I listed for myself the great and small dramas we grown-ups experience, and whose aftermath our children inevitably feel. There's no denying it: children live adult lives — they adjust to our schedules and our comings and goings, and they witness our contradictions. We ask them to be reasonable, to calm down, not to shout, to smile — but are we always capable of that ourselves? Who are the grown-ups, really? Between the child and the adult, who adapts more to the other?

I imagined the character of Joséphine, who observes adults so keenly: this little girl is funny, energetic, creative. She offers coaching lessons to other children, teaching them how to live with grown-ups. But she remains a child — somewhat helpless in the face of her parents' grief, in the face of the dramas of the world and of the schoolyard. She needs to be heard, to be seen, to be guided. Hence the character of the Old Woman, herself a little lonely and forgotten, who listens to her and walks alongside her.

As I wrote, I quickly realized I saw myself completely in Joséphine. I even remembered that as a child, I used to write little stories with the title The Adventures of Joséphine! Joséphine was none other than a long-standing alter ego. This may seem obvious to the reader, but I am always a little astonished to discover that the writer turns up everywhere behind her small fictional stratagems. In short, as I wrote, I realized I was that little girl trying to be heard while refusing help — the one who hides her sorrow by putting her anger on display. But since I am now a grown-up myself, I also found myself in the character of the mother, whom I wanted to love and forgive, just as I try to do in my own life as a parent.

Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon

About the author:

Upon graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in dramatic writing, Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon won the "young audiences theatre and emerging artists" competition. Her plays Minuit (Leméac) and Un Oiseau m'attend received honourable mentions for the Gratien-Gélinas Prize. She is the 2021 Gratien-Gélinas Prize laureate for her play Le Jardin d'Éden. She is also the author of the young audiences plays Crème-Glacée and Amande-Amandine, both published by L'Arche Éditeur. Her most recent play, La nuit du caribou, was performed in Bonaventure in the summer of 2022. Her plays have been produced by the Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke, Double Signe, Théâtre la Seizième, Théâtre de la Petite Marée, and in France by Théâtre en scène and L'insomniaque cie. She teaches a playwriting workshop at the National Theatre School of Canada.

JOSÉPHINE, ET LES GRANDES PERSONNES
Ages 8 and up
Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.
50 minutes
Lieu : Berkeley Street Theatre
Admission: Regular: $22.50 | Under 18: $11.50 | Pay what you can ($10, $15, or $20) at the door | Box office: 416.534.6604 or theatrefrancais.com