Twelve Opening Acts

Alongside his dozens of fascinating and award winning plays; in addition to this great Chronicles of the Plateau Mont-Royal series of six epic novels; his translations; adaptations; librettos; and acute portrayals of human emotions in a state of both crisis and redemption, Michel Tremblay has left his readers with three magical keys to the secrets of his great literary achievements.AKAKThe first of these, Bambi and Me [Les Vues animÈs, LemÈac, 1990], is a memoir of the movies that shaped his imagination as a childóthose he watched in fascination and spent hours deconstructing with his mother, and those he watched on his own.AKAKThe second, Twelve Opening Acts [Douze Coups de ThÈ‚tre, LemÈac, 1992], is an account of Tremblay's discovery of the theatre as an adolescent: from his first breathtaking recognition of how the imagination is actually a public construct, while watching a performance of Babar the Elephant at the age of six; to his winning of the CBC drama competition with his first play, Le Train. AKAKBetween these parenthetical stories, Michel Tremblay offers the reader an entrance into his discovery of the theatricality of life itselfóthe personal dramas of his homosexuality, the death of his mother, the increasingly frail withdrawing of his father, even the completely unintentional, almost apolitical creation of his nationalist awareness, are recounted in narratives at once devoid of judgement, but at the same time ennobled with a complexity and intensity of passion operatic in its scope and merciless in its sweep.AKAKThis is the most ruthless and unsparing, yet tender and evocative insight Tremblay has ever offered into the creation of his literary genius. AKAKAt the end of Tremblay's career one will likely be able to sew together all his plays and novels and discover we have been privileged to read the works of a veritable QuÈbÈcois Michel Proust. "AKAKóCanadian Book Review AnnualAKAKAlso available from Talonbooks (Memoirs):AKAKBambi and Me (1997)AKAKPlays:AKAKEn PiËces DÈtachÈes (1975)AKLa Duchesse de Langeais & Other Plays (1976)AKDamnÈe Manon, SacrÈe Sandra (1981)AKThe Impromptu of Outrement (1981)AKSainte-Carmen of the Main (1981)AKRemember Me (1984)AKAlbertine in Five Times (1986)AKThe Real World? (1988)AKBonjour, L‡, Bonjour (1990)AKHosanna (1991)AKLa Maison Suspendue (1991)AKLes Belles Soeurs (1992)AKForever Yours, Marie-Lou (1994)AKMarcel Pursued by the Hounds (1996)AKFor the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again (1998)AKAKMichel Tremblay's drama is also anthologized in:AKAKModern Canadian Plays:Volume I (2000)AKAKAKAK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------AKAKAKISBN 0-88922-466-8 $18.95 Canada / $14.95 U.S.A.AK©2002; 192pp; 1st printingAKAKAK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------AKAKTo order TalonbooksTremblay, Michel is the author of 'Twelve Opening Acts' with ISBN 9780889224667 and ISBN 0889224668.