The Sidekick Players are pleased to present the second production of their 19th Season with Michel Tremblay's "Les Belles Soeurs" directed by Carroll Lefebvre.

Michel Tremblay is a playwright/translator born in a working class family in Quebec in 1942, he is probably the most-produced playwright in the nation and arguably the most important playwright in the history of the country.

His first widely produced play,Les Belles Souers, opened the floodgates of theatre, both francophone and anglophone, in a number of ways. First, it introduced a theatre that was from here and that could not be mistaken for theatre from anywhere else. The language Tremblay used in the work - joual - was still a rare thing in Quebec theatre but the work used it in a frank, often brutal, way. Moreover, the language was not simply used for shock-value - the piece also set out to prove that the language of the streets was a beautiful thing; there is a hilarious and lovely oratorio in the play that speaks about the game of Bingo. Belles Soeurs also signaled, most clearly, the steps theatre in Quebec (and all over Canada) was taking away from tradition and, by extension, the control and censorship actively exercised by the clergy. The swearing in the piece (like much of Quebec-French swearing) was religious (ie: anti-religious). Too, the play with its all-women cast of characters, championed Quebec working-class women, who, until well after the Quiet Revolution, had been slaves of the Catholic Church and of the patriarchy. The work and subsequent early works also signaled the emergence of the Nationalist movement in Quebec. Indeed, questions of identity (sexual, cultural etc.) are constant themes in Tremblay's entire oeuvre.

Tremblay's early works, particularly Hosanna and La Duchesse de Langeais, though seen as separatist metaphors, are also early instances of openly Gay characters in Canadian theatre. Indeed many of his works, then and later, featured Gay characters with little apology. It was soon after Tremblay became a household name that he, too, announced his sexual orientation and he has become a hero of the Gay movement.

What is also important is that the works of Michel Tremblay, both fiction and dramatic, have proven their exportability not only to the rest of Canada but world-wide. His plays have been adapted and translated into dozens of languages and have seen huge success in Europe, the Americas and the Middle-East.

In 1968, Les Belles Soeurs received a public reading at the Centre des Auteurs Dramatiques and was picked up by Yvette Brind'Amour, artistic director for the Theatre du Rideau Vert. Brassard directed the work (and has directed all of the Tremblay premieres since), and the history of theatre here changed. The debate which followed surrounded the language of the play (joual, the cursing), the people of the play (working-class with no future) and the fact that the play dared to discuss women, sex and even abortion.

From then on new professional productions of Tremblay works became practically an annual affair. But soon, his plays were being performed in revival, or on tour, or in English translation so a year has not passed since 1968 when several professional companies in Canada are performing his works.

He has received many of this country's and other's top honours, and has received many honorary doctorates. In 1999, he received a Governor General's Award and found himself at the centre of a controversy when well-known Quebec nationalists expected him to refuse the award. He did not, though he did announce publicly, for the first time, that he had previously refused the Order of Canada in 1990. More recently, in 2000, For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again won a Chalmers Award and a Dora Mavor Moore Award. His plays have been performed in many of the country's top venues including the Stratford Festival.

Michel Tremblay divides his time between homes in Montreal and Key West. He said, to the Globe and Mail (April 27, 2000), after a cool critical reception to Encore une fois..., "I'm not humble. I'm everything but humble. But I draw a line at being good and being a genius. You can be wonderful and write beautiful music but you're not Stravinsky. That's all. And when you accept you're not Stravinsky, you can go on in life, and write, and enjoy your writing."

His plays have been produced in over 22 languages (including Yiddish, Haitian Creole, Dutch, Lithuanian, Hindi and Japanese).

Sidekick is performing the English translation of Les Belles which features 15 women. The cast comes from Delta, Langley and Vancouver. "It's not always easy putting fifteen women (many of whom didn't know each other before) in a room and expect them to get along, but this group is amazing!" said director, Lefebvre. "They arrive for rehearsal full of energy and gather in the seating area and start chatting, some bringing in goodies and coffee. It's like a bridge game, not a rehearsal!" It's this camaraderie that has bonded this cast and has resulted in wonderful chemistry on stage. The play has offensive language and material, but that is what Tremblay wanted to put out there...the language and the living style of the French Canadian, working class women in the 60's

Many of us remember when we collected stamps to be put into books that could be traded for items for our house! Now we just have plastic cards that we hand over to the cashier to accumulate points for the same thing! Germaine Lauzon has just won one million trading stamps and she is very excited to get so many things for her home that she otherwise could never afford. But the catch is that she has to paste them all into the books before she can redeem them! She invites friends and family over one night to help her paste all the stamps into the books. What transpires during that time opens many wounds and shows the true colours of her friends and her family. And oftentimes it isn't very pretty. There is humour, tears and the shock factor is definitely present. The cast includes, Jeanne Sommerfield, Brenda DeJong, Bernice Fehr, Alycia Duncan, Marcia Strang, Carol Jones, Jacqollyne Keath, Maribel Karmazyn, Laura Sutherland-Smith, Vicki Dodwell, Lula Reed, Erica Bearss, Sangeeta Wylie, Hannah Everett and Sadie Karmazyn. Assisting Lefebvre are Maureen Dorotich and Trish Mardon.

Les Belles Soeurs opens January 21 and runs to February 6 (Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings) at 8:00 PM. There are two matinees on Sunday January 24 & 31 at 2:00 PM. All performances are at The Tsawwassen Arts Centre, 1172 56th Street. There is limited seating. Reservations can be made by calling 604-288-2415.