Théâtre la Seizième has unveiled a 2019-20 season that features a recent hit play from France and a local version of the raucous theatre sendup Le NoShow.

As usual for the city's leading francophone company, each production will offer a few performances either in English or with English surtitles.

The programming kicks off with Adieu Monsieur Haffmann, October 1 to 5 at Studio 16, a show that took home four of France’s prestigious Molière Awards in 2018. France's Atelier Théâtre Actuel brings the romantic thriller here, centering its 1942 story on a Jewish jeweller named Joseph Haffmann who offers his employee the chance to take over his store while he hides in the basement from the Nazis. The employee agrees, but only if Joseph helps his wife conceive a child.

November 19 to 23 at the same venue, look for Gamète, from Quebec's Les Biches Pensives. Rébecca Déraspe's play focuses on two female friends, one a civil engineer and the other a feminist blogger, who clash when one of the most becomes pregnant with a baby who has Down Syndrome.

In the new year, February 26 to March 1, Théâtre la Seizième, in collaboration with Quebec's Théâtre DuBunker and the Nous sommes ici collective, stage their own rendition of Le NoShow offsite at Performance Works. It launches with the audience members deciding how much they will pay for their tickets and evolves into an irreverent, interactive look at the cost of being a theatre artist and the value of art.

We Love Arabs, by France's Hillel Kogan and  Drôles de dames, hits the Scotiabank Dance Centre from April 23–25, telling the story of an Israeli choreographer who casts an Arab performer for a work about peace. But only once they get beyond words and start to dance do they work through things.

Vancouver's French-language theatre will also take two productions to young audiences this season: Le Merveilleux Voyage D'Ines de L'Ouest hits elementary schools, while Princesse de Personne tours secondary schools, both in the spring.

And David Paquet's Le Soulier, the play that recently won four Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, will be presented at the Zones théâtrales biennial in Ottawa on September 13 and 14.

Find more info here.