The Blue Notebook

Description

When Fine Dumas's notorious transvestite Boudoir is shut down after Expo 67, Celine is condemned to go back to working as a waitress at Le Select, attending to the frustrated appetites and exquisite pathos of its exotic clientele. Then a newcomer appears, the gorgeous Gilbert Forget, a musician who is not insensitive to her charms. Celine, a midget who has always thought she was unworthy, never having imagined the possibility of a mature loving and sexual relationship in her life, throws herself into a passionate affair with Gilbert, discovering the body's thrills for the first time. Hanging out with his new crowd of artists and performers she gets a backstage look at a project that's going to revolutionize Quebec show business and become emblematic of its 1960's culture. Based on an historic event, Osstidcho as it was called both in life and in the book, is a play on the powerful Quebecois oath hostie (the sacred host) which, like fuck in English, is used as a noun, adjective, verb, adverb, and in this production, as a punning, truncated form of hostie de show one fucking great show. As she has done twice before, Celine records the events and adventures of her life in a notebook. But now, inspired by the agony and ecstasy of first love, she reaches for the heights of romantic prose: while The Black Notebook, her first, is a simple daily journal; and The Red Notebook, her second, is a memory book, in which she records her life in retrospect embellished with rhetorical commentary; in The Blue Notebook Celine steps outside of herself, using a narrator to tell her story. Having finally discovered herself, she is now also finally free of that self. Will her tempestuous relationship with Gilbert endure? Will there be a fourth installment?

Michel Tremblay One of the most produced and the most prominent playwrights in the history of Canadian theatre, Michel Tremblay has received countless prestigious honours and accolades. His dramatic, literary and autobiographical works have long enjoyed remarkable international popularity, including translations of his plays that have achieved huge success in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. Awards and Recognition* Prix du Grand (2009) La Traversee de la ville (Lemeac Editeur Inc.) Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix (2006) Globe and Mail Top 100 Books (2003) Birth of a Bookworm Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play (2000) For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again Chalmers Awards (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1986, 1989, 2000) Governor General's Performing Arts Award (1999) Molson Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (1994) Louis-Hemon Prize (1994) Montreal Book Fair Grand Public Prize (1994) Banff Centre National Award (1992) Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France (1991) Chevalier of the Order of Quebec (1990) San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Festival Long-Standing Public Service Award (1989) CBC Anik Prize (1988) Athanase-David Lifetime Achievement Prize (1988) Quebec-Paris Prize (1985) Chevalier of Arts and Letters of France (1984). Sheila Fischman Born in Saskatchewan, Sheila Fischman is a member of the Order of Canada and has a doctorate from the University of Waterloo. A two-time Governor General's Award winner, Fischman has translated from French to English more than a hundred novels by such prominent Quebec writers as Michel Tremblay, Jacques Poulin, Anne Hebert, Francois Gravel, Marie-Claire Blais and Roch Carrier. In 2008, Fischman was awarded the prestigious Molson Prize for her outstanding contributions to Canadian literature.

"Tremblay's charters don't merely exist, they live out complex, sprawling lives" -- Globe and Mail