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Michel Tremblay

Writer, Actor, Additional CreditsBorn June 25, 1942 (83 years)
Michel Tremblay (born 25 June 1942) is a French-Canadian novelist and playwright.

Tremblay was born in Montreal, Quebec, where he grew up in the French-speaking neighbourhood of Plateau Mont-Royal; at the time of his birth, a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect - something that would heavily influence his work. Tremblay's first professionally produced play, Les Belles-Sœurs, was written in 1965 and premiered at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on August 28, 1968. It transformed the old guard of Canadian theatre and introduced joual to the mainstream. It stirred up controversy by portraying the lives of working-class women and attacking the strait-laced, deeply religious society of mid-20th century Quebec.

The most profound and lasting effects of Tremblay's early plays, including Hosanna and La Duchesse de Langeais, were the barriers they toppled in Quebec society. Until the Quiet Revolution of the early 1960s, Tremblay saw Quebec as a poor, working-class province dominated by an English-speaking elite and the Roman Catholic Church. Tremblay's work was part of a vanguard of liberal, nationalist thought that helped create an essentially modern society. His most famous plays are usually centred on gay characters. The first Canadian play about and starring a drag queen was his play Hosanna, which was first performed at Théâtre de Quat'Sous in Montreal in 1973. The women in his plays are usually strong but possessed with demons they must vanquish. It is said he sees Quebec as a matriarchal society. He is considered one of the best playwrights for women. In the late 1980s, Les Belles-sœurs ("The Sisters-in-Law") was produced in Scotland in Scots, as The Guid-Sisters ("guid-sister" being Scots for "sister-in-law"). His work has been translated into many languages, including Yiddish, and including such works as Sainte-Carmen de la Main, Ç'ta ton tour, Laura Cadieux, and Forever Yours, Marilou (À toi pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou).

He has been openly gay throughout his public life, and he has written many novels (The Duchess and the Commoner, La nuit des princes charmants, Le Coeur découvert, Le Coeur éclaté) and plays (Hosanna, La duchesse de Langeais, Fragments de mensonges inutiles) centred on gay characters. In a 1987 interview with Shelagh Rogers for CBC Radio's The Arts Tonight, he remarked that he has always avoided behaviours he has considered masculine; for example, he does not smoke and he noted that he was 45 years old and did not know how to drive a car. "I think I am a rare breed," he said, "A homosexual who doesn't like men." He claims one of his biggest regrets in life was not telling his mother that he was gay before she died. ...

Source: Article "Michel Tremblay" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

  • Sisters and Neighbors!
  • It's Your Turn, Laura
  • Let's Talk About Love
  • Geraldine's Fortune
  • Laura Cadieux... la suite
  • Il était une fois dans l'est
  • Les matins infidèles
  • The Wanderer
  • The Late Blossom
  • Albertine, en cinq temps

Michel Tremblay Filmography

2024
Sisters and Neighbors! · as Monsieur Tremblay
2017
1994
King of the Airways · as Critique "festin Des Loups"

2025
Chère Clémence · as Self
2023
2022
2019
Good evening, good evening! (TV Series) · as Self
2018
That Year (TV Series) · as Self
2017
La Part du diable · as Self (archive Footage)
2017
Y'a du monde à messe (TV Series) · as Self
2016
La revue culturelle (TV Series) · as Self
2016
Les échangistes (TV Series) · as Self
2013
Deux hommes en or (TV Series) · as Self
2009
En direct de l'univers (TV Series) · as Self
2004
Tout le monde en parle (QC) (TV Series) · as Self
2000
L'invité (TV Series) · as Self
1979
Chez Denise (TV Series) · as Michel Tremblay
1975
Apostrophes (TV Series) · as Self
1973
Backyard Theatre · as Himself

1999
Laura Cadieux... la suite · as Characters
1989
Les matins infidèles · as Script Consultant
1976
Let's Talk About Love · as Dialogue
1953
Television Theater (TV Series) · as Play

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