About the Play:

The Madonna Painter or The Birth of a Painting (English-language version of Le peintre des madones ou La naissance d'un tableau) is a full-length drama by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau. To protect his parish from the 1918 flu epidemic, a Quebec priest commissions an Italian painter to create a fresco dedicated to the Virgin Mary with consequences both comic and cataclysmic. History, symbol and magic realism are beautifully combined in this exquisite parable from one of Canada's finest playwrights.

The Madonna Painter unmasks a bouquet of lies that breeds as conspiracy theories as superstition collides with desire. At the end of the First World War, to protect his village from the Spanish flu epidemic brought home by returning soldiers, a young priest recently arrived in the Parish of Lac St-Jean commissions a wandering Italian painter to decorate the walls of the local church with a fresco dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The painter is to choose, among four local women all named Mary, a model for his work. The presence of the foreign artist, his choice of a local virgin to serve as a model, and the frighteningly strange nature of his work will upset the lives and change the fate of the entire community. The town's doctor, meanwhile, has his own prescription for what is ailing the villagers. The Madonna Painter is a dark and humorous fable that plays on our notions about sex, secrets and sacred ecstasies.

Le Peintre des madones ou la Naisance d'un tableau premiered in 2002 at ThéâtreEspace Go in Montréal. The Madonna Painter premiered in 2009 at Factory Theatre in Toronto.

Cast: 4 female, 4 male

What people say:

"Like a prayer! Sex, religion and rural Quebec are beautifully brought together in The Madonna Painter." — Mirror

"There's a dark edge that sharpens and sharpens until it slices you in half... an unforgettable play." — Globe & Mail

"Bouchard puts human nature under the scalpel and a terrible beauty is born." — The Toronto Star

About the Playwright:

Michel Marc Bouchard is one of Québec's most prominent playwrights. Three of his plays have also been adapted for cinema. He has received numerous grants and awards including "Le Prix du Journal de Montréal", "Le Prix des critiques de l'Outaouais", the Dora Mavor Moore Award, the Chalmers Award for Outstanding New Play, and nine Jessie Richardson Awards.