About the Plays:

Talking Bodies collects Larry Tremblay's four stunning and memorable solo performances for the stage. Thematically related, each deals with the reconstruction of an identity which, through trauma, illusion, accident or destiny, has been threatened, destabilized, broken or dispersed.

It is the body in which any identity finds its origin, but it is only in that body's gestures, the most complex of which is language, that this construct of identity can be elaborated. Each of these characters is a body placed on a stage where it enacts both its limitations and its possibilities with its words.

With an introduction by Jane M. Moss.

Talking Bodies includes:

In A Trick of Fate (English version of Le déclic du destin), the everyday existence of a man is suddenly thrown off kilter while he is eating a chocolate eclair. At once anxious and comical, he recounts the horrifying and absurd series of events that led to the eventual loss of all his body parts. (Cast: 1 male)

In Anatomy Lesson (English version of Leçon d'anatomie), brilliant scientist, but a broken woman, performs an autopsy of a dead marriage to her abusive, slick lawyer-politician husband. (Cast: 1 female, or 1 female and 1 male in non-speaking role.)

The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi was written in English by the playwright. On the heels of a severe trauma, a man loses access to his mother tongue. After a strange dream, he regains his speech, but can express himself only in English. A francophone play written in English with a French syntax, it is a gripping solo piece on identity politics and alienation. (Cast: 1 male)

Ogre (English version) is a biting satire. Alone in his bathroom, a scornful, narcissistic and media-crazed ogre exposes his rawest fantasies in a deranged dialogue with fictitious characters, all the while imagining that hidden cameras capture and transmit his every word and movement. It is a critical look at the twisted impact of the media on our society. (Cast: 1 male)

What people say:

"Sharp, full of imagery, logical and deliberately long-winded, A Trick of Fate rings like a parody of a conference on Freud or a Kafka short story sent up by a comic." Le Devoir (Montréal)

"A crucial creation which puts the power of lucidity in the hands of the accused." — Journal de Montréal on Anatomy Lesson

"Poetic Dragonfly breaks new ground… Larry Tremblay has proved himself a true innovator… Dragonfly is written with an intoxicating, poetic power and grace." — Gazette (Montréal)

"A vitriolic fable on the media's relentless insistence on pushing the boundaries of intimacy." — Voir on Ogre

About the Playwright:

Larry Tremblay is a Québec writer, director, actor and specialist in kathakali, classical dance-theater, which he studied on numerous trips to India. He has published over thirty books as a playwright, novelist, poet and essayist. His works have been translated into twenty languages and his plays have been produced in many countries.