Melanie’s son Benoit, age 8, has a pain that won’t go away, so she takes him to the dentist. Naturally, this results in an epic meltdown. You see, with Benoit, nothing is ever simple. The proof: once in the dentist’s chair, Benoit turns out to have a lot more than cavities inside his mouth… In the end, Melanie – with the help of a kindly alcoholic receptionist, and a dentist who prefers plants to people – must face the fact that her son’s problems are much larger than a simple toothache.
Le Soulier is a bipolar comedy, full of touching and relatable characters trying so very hard to be happy. David Paquet, who won the Governor-General’s Award for Literature in 2010 and the Prix auteur dramatique du Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in 2017, has written a hilarious and unsettling play in which empathy triumphs over illness.
JESSIES
Awards (Category: Large Theatre)
Outstanding Performance by an actor: Félix Beauchamp
Outstanding Sound Design/Original Composition: Malcolm Dow
Georgia Straight Outstanding Direction: Esther Duquette & Gilles Poulin-Denis
Special award
Outstanding Original Script: David Paquet
Nominations (Category: Large Theatre)
Outstanding Production: Théâtre la Seizième
Outstanding Performance by an actor: Joey Lespérance
Outstanding Performance by an actor: France Perras
Outstanding Lighting Design: Itail Erdal
Production Théâtre La Seizième
Text David Paquet
Direction Esther Duquette, Gilles Poulin-Denis
Cast Félix Beauchamp or Gabriel Szabo, Annie Lefebvre, Joey Lespérance, France Perras
Set and costume design Drew Facey
Music Malcolm Dow
Lighting Itai Erdal
Movement Noam Gagnon
Sound operator Aidan Hammond
Technical direction Jeremy Baxter
Surtitles Emma Luna Davis
Surtitle translation Leanna Brodie
Set and costume assistant Tegan Klancnik
- Interview with David Paquet
- David Paquet by Rachel Peake
- Three questions to the artistic director
- Le Soulier runs full tilt in a unique and completely engaging experience (Vancouver Presents)
- Quebecois playwrights definitely do theatre differently from playwrights in the rest of Canada (Jo Ledingham)
- Le Soulier drills into unseen emotional landscapes, with surreal set pieces and abundant laughs (The Georgia Straight)
- With new play Le Soulier, Théâtre la Seizième shifts boldly between reality and fantasy (The Georgia Straight)
- For its latest production, Théâtre la Seizième commissioned Governor General’s Literary Award-winning playwright David Paquet to create a work specifically for Vancouver’s French-language theatre company (Vancouver Presents)
