Michel Marc Bouchard

(b.1958). Born in the Lac Saint-Jean region of Quebec, which has provided the background for several of his plays, he exhibited an artistic bent at an early age, writing a novel and organizing a tour for his theatre sketches. In the late 1970s, while he was studying in Matane (Gaspésie) for a career in tourism, he directed and produced his plays Mortadelle, Angelus, and Dans les bras de Morphée Tanguay. The last of these provided the ideas for his later ‘Tanguay’ series, which borrowed elements from Greek mythology to explore emotional development.

Realizing that his future lay in the theatre, Bouchard studied drama at the Université d'Ottawa, and on completion of his B.A. he worked as an actor for the Atelier du Centre national des Arts, and served variously as producer, author, actor, vice-president for several Franco-Ontarian theatre companies, including the Théâtre du Nouvel Ontario, Théâtre-Action, and Théâtre de la Vieille 17. From 1988to1990 he was artistic director of the Théâtre du Trillium, Ottawa, and taught briefly at the Université d'Ottawa. He has produced summer theatre in Roberval, Quebec, and was author in residence at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Montreal, for the 1994–5 season.

Bouchard has been successful in all these capacities, but his reputation rests on his achievements as a playwright. He first came to critical attention in Quebec with La contrenature de Chrysippe Tanguay, écologiste (1984; translated by James Magruder as The counter nature of Chrysippe Tanguay, ecologist, 1987), a psychodrama focusing on the experience of a homosexual couple, Louis/Chrysippe and Jean/Laios, who want their own child. A psychological and symbolical drama, La poupée de Pélopia (1984), followed (translated by Gideon Schein as Pelopia's doll, 1986), dealing with rape and incest within the family of a famous doll-maker pretending to respectability. Critics and public alike acclaimed his Les feluettes; ou La répétition d'un drame romantique (1987; translated by Linda Gaboriau as Lilies; or The revival of a romantic drama, 1990), which marked the beginning of his national and international career. Mixing estheticism and coarseness, this baroque drama—a play within a play, in which male and female roles are taken by male prisoners—re-enacts in 1952 a series of passionate and tragic episodes occurring in 1912 that disrupted or ended the lives of those involved. Truth emerges from a tale of homosexual love, and from fantasy bordering on madness. It was filmed as Lilies (1996), directed by John Greyson, with Bouchard's French scenario translated/adapted by Linda Gaboriau.

Of Bouchard's next plays, two have received particular recognition. Les muses orphelines (1989; version for France ‘translated’ under the same title by Noelle Renaude, 1992; translated by Linda Gaboriau as The orphan muses, 1993) centres on the destiny and neuroses of three sisters and a brother as these are revealed during a contrived reunion many years after they have been abandoned by their mother and have lost their father. L'histoire de l'oie (1991; translated by Linda Gaboriau as The tale of teeka, 1992, and into many European languages) was written initially as a play for children. Set once more in rural Quebec in the 1950s, it examines the relationship between a boy, physically abused by his parents, and the goose who is his sole friend. During the play's international tours it reached audiences of all ages through its subtle and imaginative approach to the seemingly insoluble problem of violence engendering violence.

Bouchard's plays—all of which have been produced (although not all published)—generally undergo substantive reworking before and after their appearance. Le voyage du couronnement (produced in 1995)—which includes political allegory, along with several storylines dealing with corruption and sacrifice, impossible love, and cowardice—is undergoing major change. Nevertheless, the emphasis on highly theatrical structure and the use of different levels of language are trademarks. There are also recurrent patterns of homosexuality and victim/torturer relationships. Bouchard's characters are often marginalized and tormented, and self-contradictory: they struggle to distinguish between reality and fiction. And while the plots of his neoromantic dramas veer towards the melodramatic, there are no simplistic solutions. Though there are unexpected touches of humour, the subjects appear sombre.

Bouchard has also published Du haut de ses vingt ans (1985), in which an actress reconsiders an earlier suicide role; Rock pour un faux bourdon (1987), a musical alternating drama and comedy; and Les grandes chaleurs (1993; translated by Bill Glassco as Heat wave, 1996), a comedy of love between two generations. Unpublished but produced in the 1980s and 1990s are Les porteurs d'eau, a drama; Cyrano de Bergerac dans un parc, an adaptation; and Soirée bénéfice pour ceux qui ne seront pas là en l'an 2000, a black science-fiction comedy (a reading); and several comedies: La visite, L'amour à l'agenda, and Les papillons de nuit. Bouchard's plays have garnered many prizes, and he has been a finalist three times for a Governor General's Award.

(See Mariel O'Neill-Karch, Théâtre francoontarien, espaces ludiques (1992);) (Jeu 49 (1988), featuring articles on Les feluettes;) (André Dion, ‘Tout plein d'émotions: interview’, Lettres québecoises, no. 53 (printemps 1989).) See also Drama in French 1981 to 1996: 2.