About the Play:

Warriors (English version of Les guerriers) is a full-length drama by Michel Garneau translated by Linda Gaboriau. Pushing their intellectual, moral, and even physical boundaries, two ad-men are hired to pitch the perfect slogan for the biggest moneymaker in history: The Military. Gilles and Paul risk more than just their careers in this biting satire about the business of war. Warriors tackles the ethics, morality and necessity of marketing the military.

Warriors enters the world of advertising, where any product can be sold. Gilles and his partner Paul are the whiz kids of the advertising world. They've just landed the contract of a lifetime. Like the characters in Mad Men, their job is to sell a product with a catchy campaign. There's only one snag. This time it's not for a soft drink, it's for the Canadian Armed Forces. War, after all, is often as much about business as it is about conflict. They have 10 days to come up with a campaign to sell war. The two ad men lock themselves in a room to work through an agonizing, brainstorming session as they try to erase the grim visage of war and package it in a bright, trite, five-word sentence that'll top it's predecessor, "There's no life like it." As they search for the "magic words" that will please the client, the tension of creation is brilliantly and dangerously portrayed as they consider the morality of the war, violence, and human nature.

Les guerriers premiered in 1989 at Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui in Montreal. Warriors translated by Linda Gaboriau premiered in 1990 at the Martha Cohen Theatre during Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP) National playRites Festival of New Plays. Since then the play had its US premiere in 2002 at the Culture Project off-Broadway in New York City and has been successfully staged at several professional theatres and fringe festivals across Canada.

Cast: 2 men

What people say:

"If you want a challenging piece of theatre, prepare for Warriors." — Calgary Sun

"Linda Gaboriau translates Quebec playwright Michel Garneau's Les Guerriers with aplomb, reinforcing a fierce energy." — The Vancouver Sun

"Warriors feels like being caught in a brainstorm. Words and ideas fly from every corner as the play's two characters struggle to find a way to make war appealing. The two-man play, by Michel Garneau, is compact and clever." — Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

About the Playwright:

Michel Garneau is a Quebec poet and playwright. He was a recipient of the Governor General's Award for Les petits chevals amoureux (poetry) in 1978, and Mademoiselle Rouge, a drama, in 1990. From 1982 to 1988 he was Associate Director of the French section of the National Theatre School of Canada. He is the author of some 50 works, including more than 40 plays, which have been translated into English, Portuguese, German and Spanish, and have been produced internationally.