Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay born 25 June 1942 is a FrenchCanadian novelist and playwright Tremblay was born in Montreal Quebec where he grew up in the Frenchspeaking neighbourhood of Plateau MontRoyal at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a workingclass character and joual dialect something that would heavily influence his work Tremblays first professionally produced play Les BellesSœurs was written in 1965 and premiered at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on August 28 1968 It transformed the old guard of Canadian theatre and introduced joual to the mainstream It stirred up controversy by portraying the lives of workingclass women and attacking the straitlaced deeply religious society of mid20th century Quebec The most profound and lasting effects of Tremblays early plays including Hosanna and La Duchesse de Langeais were the barriers they toppled in Quebec society Until the Quiet Revolution of the early 1960s Tremblay saw Quebec as a poor workingclass province dominated by an Englishspeaking elite and the Roman Catholic Church Tremblays work was part of a vanguard of liberal nationalist thought that helped create an essentially modern society His most famous plays are usually centred on gay characters The first Canadian play about and starring a drag queen was his play Hosanna which was first performed at Théâtre de QuatSous in Montreal in 1973 The women in his plays are usually strong but possessed with demons they must vanquish It is said he sees Quebec as a matriarchal society He is considered one of the best playwrights for women In the late 1980s Les Bellessœurs The SistersinLaw was produced in Scotland in Scots as The GuidSisters guidsister being Scots for sisterinlaw His work has been translated into many languages including Yiddish and including such works as SainteCarmen de la Main Çta ton tour Laura Cadieux and Forever Yours Marilou À toi pour toujours ta MarieLou He has been openly gay throughout his public life and he has written many novels The Duchess and the Commoner La nuit des princes charmants Le Coeur découvert Le Coeur éclaté and plays Hosanna La duchesse de Langeais Fragments de mensonges inutiles centred on gay characters In a 1987 interview with Shelagh Rogers for CBC Radios The Arts Tonight he remarked that he has always avoided behaviours he has considered masculine for example he does not smoke and he noted that he was 45 years old and did not know how to drive a car I think I am a rare breed he said A homosexual who doesnt like men He claims one of his biggest regrets in life was not telling his mother that he was gay before she died Source Article Michel Tremblay from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30