About the Play:

The Leisure Society (English version La société des loisirs) is a full-length comedy by François Archambault, translated by Bobby Theodore. The play explores the crisis of a 30 something couple who appear to have everything – love, careers, a beautiful house, a child as well a plan to adopt another – yet they find their lives in an emotional crisis during the course of a highly charged dinner party. The play is laced with dry and biting humour.

The Leisure Society is a vicious and hilarious social satire that skewers North American consumerism. A well-heeled, self-obsessed couple, Peter and Mary, invite their fast-living friend over to dump him. But when Mark turns up with his stunning young girlfriend Paula, the dinner party spectacularly nosedives into a drunken swamp of personal revelation and debauchery. A deliciously offensive morality play with absolutely no moral compass.

The Leisure Society was performed in Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver. The original production of La société des loisirs by Montréal's Théâtre de la Manufacture received the "Masque" for the Best Original Play from the "Académie québécoise", in 2004.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male

What people say:

"A vicious, erotically charged spectacle full of cynical distain and gripping pathos." — Montreal Gazette

"Robust and raunchy, The Leisure Society is an excellent antidote for grown-ups who spend too much time catering to the kids by sitting through PG-rated mush at the movies… Rollicks along with no regard for safety, getting more and more outlandish with every sleazy revelation by its supposedly civilized inhabitants." — Vancouver Sun

"[A] superb drama of material gain and social loss...." — Globe & Mail

"Gives us a lacerating x-ray of yuppie life in our own time… Alternates uproariously funny and gaspingly horrifying moments as it excavates the dark, desperate lives of a couple who seem to have it all… Not for the faint-hearted, The Leisure Society is horrifyingly good." — Vancouver Province

"The Leisure Society is a razor-sharp satire that often veers precariously close to crossing the thin line between hilarity and offensiveness. That's what makes this perfectly poised production so exhilarating to watch… Archambault's dialogue is brutally funny, and his deceptively simple plot is a marvel of comic engineering… If you like your comedy bitter, a little scary, and beautifully executed, you'll love The Leisure Society." — Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

"Bobby Theodore's English translation of this biting black comedy by Montréal playwright François Archambault is so unerringly idiomatic and unforced it doesn't seem to be a translation at all." — Edmonton Journal

"The Leisure Society is a dark, twisted and brilliant take on modern marriage ... It is a play that will no doubt arounse deeply-seated discussions and thought." — Calgary Sun

About the Playwright:

François Archambault is a Québec playwright who has authored or co-authored more than twenty plays, many of which have been translated into English, German and Italian, and produced across Canada and in Europe. Born in Montréal, and raised in its suburbs, he graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada's playwriting program and established his importance on the Québec theatre scene with the award-winning 15 secondes (15 Seconds), a darkly humorous play about social alienation arising from superficial relationships.

Bobby Theodore is a Canadian screenwriter, playwright, and translator who is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada's playwriting program. His first translation, François Archambault's 15 Seconds, was produced across Canada and earned him a nomination for the Governor General's Award for Literary Translation in 2000. Since then, he has gone on to translate over 20 plays from French to English, including the works of some of Quebec's most talented playwrights.