The Upstage Interview: Larry Tremblay

The Dragonfly at Espace Go (photo: Danny Taillon)

Dragonfly is English; Chicoutimi is American, syntax is Franco; we have the three candies in the same box.

The Upstage Interview is a weekly feature at CharPo and is a result of The Charlebois Post's partnership with Upstage: Theatre on Radio on CKUT.

Upstage contributor Stephanie Breton spoke with playwright Larry Tremblay about The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi. Below is an abridged version of the interview transcribed by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

Playwright, actor, director, Larry Tremblay is one of Quebec’s most produced playwrights. Additionally, his work is recognized internationally.

The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi is about a purebred francophone man, Gaston Talbot from Chicoutimi, who experiences a trauma that leaves him capable of speaking only English, or rather French expressed in English words.

Five actors means Gaston Talbot is everywhere in the world, not just Chicoutimi or Quebec.

Relating an anecdote when she had been asked to play the Mother character in a public reading in a bookstore, Breton asked Tremblay if it had always been presented as a monologue. 

When I directed the play the first time, we had questioned whether we should add a female for the Mother part. We decided to just focus on Gaston Talbot.

In this production, when Director Claude Poissant proposed five young actors, it seemed like a good idea to me for two reasons. We would never want to compare the solo performer with Jean-Louis Millette.

Secondly the meaning of the play has also changed. Ten years ago, just after the second referendum, this play was perceived as a political play, seen as a metaphor for two solitudes of Quebec. Now it’s not Quebec and Canada; it’s Quebec and the world. Identity crises abound all over the world; Arabic countries, Libya, France for example.

Five actors means Gaston Talbot is everywhere in the world, not just Chicoutimi or Quebec.

Also, the set consists of five boxes. Each actor is inside one box. They can’t see each other. A metaphor that each individual has to get out of the box.

Asked the meaning of the title – The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi  – Tremblay replied 

A dragonfly is an insect with four wings. In French, dragonfly is libellule, a very feminine word, Dragonfly is a very masculine word. Funny that the same object changes in terms of language.

Dragonfly is English; Chicoutimi is American, syntax is Franco; we have the three candies in the same box.

The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi

To Mar. 19

Espace Go

Read the CharPo review here