That Woman

Description

The story of a woman (her name is never given), sent away from her family by her brother, the Bishop, after she is found exploring her sexuality at age seventeen. In a series of twenty-four "snapshots," That Woman is a devastating Judeo-Christian allegory where voyeurism, fantasy, masturbation, seduction, violence and loss are revealed in fugue-like monologues by the three characters present on stage: a woman who was thirsty, her son who liked to laugh, and an old man who watched them. It is a play which makes the literal "patriarchal gaze" emanating from three fisheye holes into the most private rooms of the woman's apartment the searing light which withers every impulse to joy and creation, and in which the Mary-Eve schizophrenia of the feminine archetype "wastes" the seed of the equally schizophrenic, celibate/dreamer-rapist/destroyer, male archetype of the patriarchal Catholic tradition.

Daniel Danis Daniel Danis lives in the Saguenay region of Quebec. His first play, Celle-la (That Woman, 1998) was awarded the Governor General's Award and named best new production by the Syndicat Professionel de la Critique Dramatique et Musicale in Paris. His second play, Cendres de cailloux, won first prize at the Festival international de Maubeuge in France, and was named best new play at the 1994 Soiree des Masques in Montreal. Linda Gaboriau Linda Gaboriau is an award-winning literary translator based in Montreal. Her translations of plays by Quebec's most prominent playwrights have been published and -produced across Canada and abroad. In her work as a -literary manager and dramaturge, she has directed -numerous translation residencies and international exchange projects. She was the founding director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. Most recently she won the 2010 Governor General's Award for Forests, her translation of the play by Wajdi Mouawad.