You Will Remember Me
15 16 Season
By François Archambault
Translated by Bobby Theodore
Directed by Joel Greenberg
A co-production with Tarragon Theatre
March 1 – April 10, 2016
Tarragon Theatre Mainspace
30 Bridgman Avenue, Toronto
How will you be remembered? How will you choose to remember those you love? As the aging patriarch of a modern family – a university professor, political and intellectual force, and long-time sovereigntist – suffers from dementia, the people who love him struggle to make room in their lives for his care. Studio 180 Theatre and Tarragon Theatre presented the Toronto premiere of this vivid and elegant drama about family and memory from one of Québec’s most dynamic voices: Governor General’s Award–winning playwright François Archambault.
Tu te souviendras de moi (You Will Remember Me) was created at Théâtre de la Licorne in 2014. In 2014, the play was among the Governor General’s Literary Award contenders, and received the prestigious Michel-Tremblay Award.
A TORONTO PREMIERE
Dora Award Nomination: Outstanding Performance, R.H. Thomson
Written by Francois Archambault
Translated by Bobby Theodore
Directed by Joel Greenberg
Assistant Directed by Viktor Lukawski
Featuring Michela Cannon, Mark McGrinder, Nancy Palk, Kimwun Perehinec, and R.H. Thompson
Stage Managed by Laura Baxter
Apprentice Stage Managed by Bradley Dunn
Sound Designed by Verne Good
Set, Costumes, and Projections Designed by Denyse Karn
Lighting Designed by Kimberly Purtell
Beyond the Stage events
Party At The Vatican
March 1 – April 10, 2016
Details
“Party at the Vatican” is an exhibition of paintings and drawings made by Dotsa Bitove Wellness Academy members. Exploring their different interests through various methods, these artists find a common ground in their shared understanding in art’s meaning and value. The Dotsa Bitove Wellness Academy is a place of learning for persons with dementia, their families and care partners. They are a centre for excellence in research and relational care and affiliated with York University and University Health Network (UHN).
Gallery
Reviews
Frustration, impatience, anger, tenderness, patience and love are emotions that simmer in this production. The result is subtly gripping. You ache for every character.
Slotkin Letter
A complex work of art – funny and moving… Palk and Thomson give performances to treasure… Part (modern) family drama, part state of the (Québec) nation play, You Will Remember Me both explores the reality of dementia and uses it as metaphor, one that keeps subtly shifting.
Globe and Mail ★★★1/2☆
You won’t soon forget R.H. Thomson’s brilliant performance… a showcase for a terrific seasoned actor.
NOW Magazine NNNN
Archambault’s script runs the gamut from heart-wrenching to heart-warming… Don’t miss this timely meditation on memory and loss in the digital age.
Theatremania ★★★★☆
Richly written, thematically resonant, and well-constructed. It’s also funny, emotionally stunning, and deeply moving… The writing soars.
Mooney on Theatre
At times funny and others heartbreakingly raw… It’s a must-see for anyone who’s ever been touched by dementia in a loved one, or who yearns for an unapologetically honest dialogue about the challenges those who face it endure.
Everything Zoomer
An extraordinary play with a superb cast giving outstanding performances. Joel Greenberg’s directing shows sensitivity and subtlety.
James Karas Reviews
Company
Francois Archambault
Playwright
More than 20 plays, translated into numerous languages and staged all around the world. In 1998, François Archambault received the Governor General’s Literary Award for his play 15 Seconds. The Leisure Society, which ran for 142 performances in its original production, was awarded “Mask of the Original Text” in 2004. Film & TV: You Will Remember Me will be adapted for the screen. Mr. Archambault has written many scripts for television, including Les étoiles filantes (Radio-Canada, 2006–2008), and is currently working on two screenplays. Other: Tu te souviendras de moi (You Will Remember Me) was created at Théâtre de la Licorne in 2014 and has received unparalleled success and praise. In 2014, the play was among the Governor General’s Literary Award contenders, and received the prestigious Michel-Tremblay Award. Mr. Archambault is a 1993 graduate in writing from the National Theatre School of Canada.
Bobby Theodore
Translator
Nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 1999 for his translation of 15 Seconds by François Archambault, Bobby has now translated over 20 plays from French to English. Bobby co-created 300 Tapes (with Ame Henderson), a devised performance that premiered at The Theatre Centre in Toronto and at ATP in Calgary, and he’s currently working on Swallow, a play set in the drama-filled world of minor hockey. This March, Soulpepper is staging his translation of Albert Camus’s The Just. Film, TV & Radio: Bobby has worked on several TV series, including Murdoch Mysteries, Flashpoint and Knuckleheads (an adaptation of the hit Québécois cartoon Têtes à claques). He’s also written for the CBC radio drama Afghanada. Bobby’s translation of François Archambault’s You Will Remember Me premiered at ATP and won a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play. Bobby is the resident dramaturg and host of the Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac.
Joel Greenberg
Director
For Studio 180: (selected) NSFW, Cock, God of Carnage, Clybourne Park, The Normal Heart, Our Class, Parade, The Overwhelming, Stuff Happens, Blackbird, The Laramie Project. A co-founder of Studio 180, Joel is a Chalmers and Dora award–winning playwright and director who has directed productions across Canada. Elsewhere: Ain’t Misbevain‘, What the Butler Saw, Taking Sides, Vanities, Bells Are Ringing, Second City (Toronto and Chicago), Dames at Sea (too many times), Tonight at 8:00…8:30 in Newfoundland (all three editions), The Foreigner, Alice, Drink the Mercury and The Nuclear Power Play. Joel taught at Humber College Theatre School from 1984 to 1989 and the Drama Department at the University of Waterloo from 1991 to 2014, also serving as the Chair of each department.
Viktor Lukawski
Assistant Director
For Studio 180: debut. Other theatre credits include: As performer/co-creator – The Double; as assistant director – Within the Glass (Tarragon), as performer – Ignorance, Famous Puppet Death Scenes (Old Trout Puppet Workshop); Brave New World (Litmus Theatre); Italian Mime Suicide, Shostakovich or 3 Days in Red (Bad New Days); Death and Gardening (Wet Picnic, UK); Four Corners (FIXT POINT). As director & performer – Business As Usual, Buffalo x 8 (ZOU). Artistic Director of ZOU theatre company, and graduate of École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.
Michela Cannon
Berenice
For Studio 180: debut. Other theatre credits include: Don’t Blink, Fragments (No Parachute Theatre); Under Milkwood, Major Weir (The Empty Room); Olga (Ryerson New Voices Festival); The Caribbean Dream (Speakeasy Productions). Film & TV: Joy, By Your Side. Other: Michela can be seen and heard in the popular video game Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and is working with Ubisoft on a soon-to-be-announced project. She is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School’s Acting Conservatory.
Mark McGrinder
Patrick
For Studio 180: (selected) Clybourne Park, The Normal Heart, Our Class, Parade, Stuff Happens, The Laramie Project. Mark is the Artistic Director of Studio 180 Theatre. His Studio 180 performing credits include Oslo, The Nether, You Will Remember Me, Clybourne Park and Stuff Happens. He has been a director and/or dramaturg(e) for many of Studio 180’s IN DEVELOPMENT projects and, as the program’s coordinator, has worked to connect creators with the appropriate collaborators required to bring their visions to the stage. He adapted and directed Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish for PANAMANIA, directed Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays and worked as Associate Director for Blackbird, God of Carnage and Studio 180’s 10th Anniversary reading of The Laramie Project. Mark was a member of the acting ensemble at the Shaw Festival for five seasons and he performed in several reviews with The Second City’s National touring company. He has been head or co-writer on several collective creations (Single and Sexy, That Artz Show and The Berlin Show) and his play MacHamlet was presented as part of the Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival. As an artist educator he has worked with high school, college and university students in and beyond the GTA and is continually inspired by the passion and vision of the young artists he has had the good fortune to connect with.
Nancy Palk
Madeleine
For Studio 180: debut. At Tarragon (selected): Wormwood, Moliere, No Great Mischief, Perfect Pie, Alice’s Affair, I Am Yours. Nancy has been performing at Tarragon since she first came to Toronto in 1980. Other theatre credits include: Founding Member of Soulpepper, where she has been acting, directing and teaching since 1998. Nancy has performed in theatres across Canada and in NYC, where she played Lady Macbeth (Theatre for a New Audience), and Elizabeth in Richard III (New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park). Film & TV: Recurring on Rogue (DirectTV), The Other Half, The Girlfriend Experience, Reign. Other: Nancy has taught at Tarragon, NTS, Humber and Soulpepper. Upcoming: The Testament of Mary (Soulpepper).
Kimwun Perehinec
Isabelle
For Studio 180: Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish; Clybourne Park; Our Class (Dora Nomination); Offensive Shadows; The Arab-Israeli Cookbook; The Passion of the Chris; The Laramie Project. Kimwun is a co-founder, artist educator and member of the Core Artistic Team for Studio 180. Other selected credits include Frankenstein’s Boy, Madhouse Variations, Sideshow of the Damned (Eldritch Theatre); Chasing Margaret Flatwood (Theatre Awakening); Like Wolves (GCTC); Wrecked (Roseneath Theatre); This Is About the Push (Seventh Stage); Mourning Dove (Ark Collective); Vanities (Theatre in Port); Spain (Absit Omen); Phae (Collective Architecture); High-Gravel-Blind, Shadows, Walk Right Up (Stratford Festival). Film and TV credits include recurring roles on the TMN series The Line and the web series B.J. Fletcher: Private Eye; and Puppets Who Kill, Nikita and Thieves. Kimwun has been nominated for two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Ensemble) and is a graduate of the actor training program at George Brown College.
R.H. Thompson
Edouard
For Studio 180: debut. Other theatre credits include: (selected) Forests, Democracy, No Great Mischief, as director – Wild Mouth (Tarragon), To Kill a Mockingbird, Copenhagen, Cyrano (Theatre Calgary); Blue Orange, The Lost Boys, Hamlet (Canadian Stage); Doc, Antigone (Soulpepper); Glenn, Inexpressible Island (Necessary Angel). As director – The Crucible, Of the Fields Lately (Theatre Calgary); Art, Inexpressible Island (GCTC); Vinci (Theatre New Brunswick). Film & TV: Chloe, The Englishman’s Boy, October 1970, Human Cargo, The Quarrel, Bonhoeffer. Mr. Thomson has earned multiple awards and has created many arts/history/education projects, including The World Remembers-Le monde se souvient, a multilingual, international WWI Centenary project.
Laura Baxter
Stage Manager
For Studio 180: NSFW, God of Carnage, Clybourne Park. Other selected theatre credits: Black Boys, The 20th of November, Arigato Tokyo, Obaaberima, The Maids, The Silicone Diaries, Breakfast, (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), Actually (Obsidian/ Harold Green), The Story, Tails From the City, Happy Days (Common Boots Theatre), Trout Stanley, Little Pretty and the Exceptional, Age of Arousal (Factory Theatre), Elle (Theatre Passe Muraille), I Call myself Princess (Cahoots/Paper Canoe/Native Earth), Sweat, Love and Information, Venus in Fur, 7 seasons of Shakespeare in High Park (CanadianStage), Soliciting Temptation, More Fine Girls (Tarragon Theatre), The Berlin Blues, Ipperwash (Blyth Festival), Speaking in Tongues, Festen (The Company Theatre), A Christmas Carol, The Story, Macbeth (Caravan Farm Theatre). Laura is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, 2005. Thank you to my amazing wife Shawn for all your love and support.
Bradley Dunn
Apprentice Stage Manager
For Studio 180: debut. Select Theatre Credits: Chicago (Globe Theatre); Dear Evan Hansen (Mirvish Productions); The Baroness and the Pig, Henry V (Shaw Festival); Mixie and the Halfbreeds (fu-GEN Theatre); The Comedy of Errors, A Grand Time in the Rapids (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Buying the Moose (Port Stanley); The Wizard of Oz (The Grand Theatre); The Heidi Chronicles, The Odd Couple (Soulpepper); It’s A Wonderful Life (Theatre Aquarius). Other: Bradley is a graduate of the McMaster University and Sheridan College. Thanks to family and friends for their constant support.
Verne Good
Sound Designer
For Studio 180: Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, NSFW, The Normal Heart. Other theatre credits include: Cake and Dirt, Was Spring, Communion (Tarragon Theatre), sound design and original music for The Atomic Weight of Happiness (Stand Up Dance); The Red Queen Effect, Stockholm (Seventh Stage Theatre Productions). Sound design for The Mountaintop (The Grand Theatre); Pericles, Hirsch (Stratford Festival); Bingo! (Factory Theatre); Outside, In This World (Roseneath); Queer Bathroom Stories (Buddies in Bad Times); Free as Injuns (Native Earth Performing Arts). Verne is a personal trainer, a poet and a graduate of Bishop’s University, National Theatre School and Humber College.
Denyse Karn
Set, Costume and Projection Designer
For Studio 180: Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, NSFW. Other theatre credits include: Othello, To Kill a Mockingbird (Stratford Festival); Intimate Apparel (The Belfry Theatre), Art, The Mountaintop (The Grand Theatre – London); Onegin (The Musical Stage Company); Das Ding (Theatre Smash/Canadian Stage); The Watershed (Crow’s Theatre/Porte Parole); Her2, The Carousel, The Penelopiad, Happy Woman, The List (Nightwood Theatre); Twisted, Stop Heart (Factory Theatre); The Winter’s Tale (Canadian Stage) and Top Girls (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre). Other: Denyse is a graduate of the TMU and NSCAD University. She has received many Dora Mavor Moore nominations and awards, a Chalmers Award and four Merritt Awards (Nova Scotia Theatre Award) for Outstanding Set, Projection and Costume designs. Denyse is a full member of ADC and IATSE Local ADC659. www.denysekarn.com
Kimberly Purtell
Lighting Designer
For Studio 180: Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, NSFW, Cock, God of Carnage, Clybourne Park, The Normal Heart, Our Class, Parade, The Overwhelming, Stuff Happens, Blackbird. Kimberly is a Toronto based lighting designer for theatre, opera and dance and is thrilled to be working with Studio 180 once again. Her designs have been critically acclaimed across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Prague, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Moscow and Mongolia. She has designed for the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Stage Company, Soulpepper Theatre, Mirvish Productions, National Arts Centre and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Pacific Opera Victoria, Opera Philadelphia, Arena Stage in Washington DC, Tapestry Opera, Hamilton Opera, Edmonton Opera, Theatre Calgary, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Citadel Theatre, Place des Arts, among many others. She has also designed productions for the Pan Am Games and the Vancouver and Beijing Cultural Olympiads. Kimberly has received three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, the Pauline McGibbon Award, a Sterling Award, and a Montreal English Theatre Award. She is the Vice President of the Associated Designers of Canada and IATSE ADC659.