Granite
By Mishka Lavigne | Translated to English by David Gagnon Walker
New Translation Commission
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New Translation Canada | Nouvelle Traduction Canada
Granite
By Mishka Lavigne
Translated to English by David Gagnon Walker
Granite is the first play of Mishka Lavigne’s new “Boreal Gothic Triptych”. Reaching out across the country, the triptych explores the tension and anguish between the supernatural, nature, and human structures. From a rickety old house where a multigenerational line of women lives, a father and daughter at a lakeside fire tower, to a botanist in a northern research station – the fires burn, the past haunts, and the early winter darkness threatens to bury it all under the snow.
“I am interested in the humanity of my characters, their emotions, their thoughts, their loneliness, and their distress. I choose to explore the intimacy and inner lives of my characters to make them talk about things greater than themselves. I want the humans in the audience to recognize what is human on stage because it is by accessing this humanity that the audience experiences a transformation.” – Mishka Lavigne
English Language Premiere of Haven (Havre), United Players with Bouche Theatre Collective (2022)
Meet the playwright & translator
Mishka Lavigne
Unique in Canadian theatre, Mishka Lavigne is a Francophone playwright, working primarily in French Canada, who writes in both official languages. A two-time Governor General Award-winner with a substantial body of work, she bridges English and French through her plays, her leadership, and her translations, which have brought Francophone audiences the work of Karen Hines, Lorraine Hansbury, Lorena Gale, Reneltta Arluk, and Dominique Morriseau, among others. Shifting between realms that may be difficult, sad, or overwhelming, Mishka’s plays are linguistically thrilling, complex portraits of people searching, and reaching for the light.
David Gagnon Walker
David is an award-winning writer, performer, and translator. He is a graduate of the playwrittng program at NTS and holds an M.A. in Performance Studies from the University of Toronto. With composer/ video designer Tori Morrison, he produces interactive theatre projects as Strange Victory Performance. David’s translation of Gabrielle Chapdelaine’s La retraite premiered with Montréal’s Imago Theatre, Other translations include Copeaux and Murs by two-time Governor General’s Award winner Mishka Lavigne, and French surtitles for Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet (Québec City, Le Diamant 2022). www.davidgagnonwalker.com
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