About the Play:

Albertine, in Five Times (English-language version of Albertine, en cinq temps) is a one-act drama by Michel Tremblay, translated by Linda Gaboriau. This award-winning play follows one woman, split into five decades of her life, as she reflects upon a life of abuse, love, regret and happiness. Accompanied by her ageless sister Madeleine, Albertine pieces together the events that led her to what she’s become, by facing her 5 selves.

Albertine, in Five Times is a well-loved and award-winning play that presents the story of one woman, Albertine, at five different times in her life. A seventy year old woman from a working class district of Montréal reassesses the major turning points of her life, all marked by failure and disappointment. Five actresses play the part of Albertine in five different decades of her life, between the ages of 30 and 70. The older Albertines warn the younger ones of what is to come – "Our fate depends on you," Albertine at 70 says to Albertine at 30. Together, these five Albertines provide a moving portrait of the extraordinary life of an "ordinary" woman. All five Albertines are present on stage, at times unaware of each other and at other times interacting and dialoguing with each other, and with Madeleine, Albertine's sister, whose life has been very different.

Albertine, in Five Times had its English-language premiere in 1985 by the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Since then the play has been produced widely at professional theatres and has been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community theatres. This new, updated translation by Linda Gaboriau, commissioned for the prestigious Shaw Festival, celebrates the twenty-five years this classic Canadian drama has intrigued and delighted audiences around the world.

Cast: 6 female

What people say:

"Michel Tremblay's Albertine – a fascinating, conflicted woman who refuses to take life’s knocks lying down – is one of Quebec theatre's most celebrated characters." — Jackie Maxwell, Shaw Festival

"A remarkable play … The conception is brilliant." — New Statesman

"The story of a life, told by Tremblay with immense compassion." — Toronto Sun

"The structure is so ingenious and the idea behind it so rich with both dramatic and philosophical possibilities that we are inevitably drawn into a life story that is both painful and hopeless." — The Herald (Glasgow)

"Take the stark grandeur and noble tragedy of a greek chorus, the psychological intimacy of a Shakespearian soliloquy, and the modern shattering of time and space in order to portray a deeper reality, hand them over to Michel Tremblay, and the result is Albertine, en cinq temps." — Hour Magazine (Montréal)

About the Playwright:

Michel Tremblay has been one of Québec's most prominent playwrights since the end of the 1960s. One of the most produced and the most prominent playwrights in the history of Canadian theatre, he has received countless prestigious honours and accolades. His dramatic, literary and autobiographical works, originally written in French, have long enjoyed remarkable international popularity and translations of his plays have received huge success worldwide.