emportés sur la crête d’une vague
By David Yee
Translated to French by Maryse Warda
Translated from carried away on the crest of a wave
PUBLIC READING
DATE
Monday October 19 2026
TIME
7 PM
LOCATION
Théâtre de Quat’Sous
100 Avenue des Pins East,
Montreal H2W 1N7
TICKETS
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BOX OFFICE
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New Translation Canada | Nouvelle Traduction Canada
in association with Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD)
& Théâtre de Quat’Sous
emportés sur la crête d’une vague
By David Yee
Translated to French by Maryse Warda
Translated from carried away on the crest of a wave
“…a boundary-pushing piece of Canadian theatre that dispenses with tradition.”
– Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen
From the shore of Ko Phi Phi in Thailand to a suburb in Utah to a mysterious Kafkaesque hole in the ground, carried away on the crest of a wave gives us brief glimpses into the lives of a sphinx-like escort, a grieving father, a conflicted priest, brothers of legend, a felonious housewife, an accountant of time, an orphaned boy, a radio shock jock and a man who finds things.
Each are connected, primarily, by the cataclysmic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed the lives of over a quarter million people. In a series of vignettes, carried away on the crest of a wave illustrates the ripple effect of one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history and ponders what happens when the events that bind us together are the same events that tear us apart.
Playwright: David Yee
Translator (to French): Maryse Warda
Director: Catherine Vidal
Featuring: Mikhail Ahooja, Chloé Barshee, Inès Defossé, Seung-Hun Kang, Nicolas Michon, Victor Trelles Turgeon and Cynthia Wu-Maheux
Creative Producers: Johanna Nutter & Jack Paterson
This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Siminovitch Theatre Foundation, Centre des auteurs dramatiques, and Théâtre de Quat’Sous.
Gallery
carried away on the crest of a wave, Centre national des Arts du Canada (2018) | Photos : David Hou
carried away on the crest of a wave, Tarragon Theatre (2013) | Photos : Cylla von Tiedemann
Meet the Artists
David Yee | Playwright
David Yee is a mixed race (half Chinese, half Scottish) playwright and actor, born and raised in Toronto. He is the co-founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre Company, Canada’s premiere professional Asian Canadian theatre company. A Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated actor and playwright, his work has been produced internationally and at home. He is a two-time Governor General’s Literary Award nominee for his plays lady in the red dress and carried away on the crest of a wave, which won the award in 2015 along with the Carol Bolt Award in 2013. Yee has been in residence at Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, the Stratford Festival, Cahoots Theatre and often works with theatre training institutions (NTS, U of T, TMU) to create new works for graduating cohorts using his unique Bespoke method of play creation. He currently teaches playwriting at the University of Toronto, and has worked extensively in the Asian Canadian community as an artist and an advocate.
“The art I have always pursued offers no simple answers. Rather, it compels us to ask better questions. It chases what is essential about our experience, what is urgent, what is honest.” – David Yee
Maryse Warda | Translator
Born in Egypt, where she spent her childhood, Maryse arrived in Montreal at the age of 9½, where she learned English by watching “Happy Days”. In 1991, Pierre Bernard, the director of Quat’Sous, not content with simply making her his assistant, also offered her the opportunity to undertake her first translation, Traces d’étoiles (Brilliant Traces) by Cindy Lou Johnson. The play was such a success that it marked the beginning of an unexpected career. Since then, she has completed over 75 translations. Her work has helped introduce the French-speaking Quebec public to numerous Canadian authors, such as Daniel Brooks, Kate Hennig, Daniel MacIvor, John Mighton, Morris Panych, Erin Shields, and George F. Walker. She has also translated American, British, Scottish, and Irish authors: Christopher Durang, Margaret Edson, David Greig, David Hare, David Mamet, Douglas Maxwell, Harold Pinter, Philip Ridley, and Simon Stephens.
Her work on George F. Walker’s Motel de passage (Suburban Motel) series received the Masque Award for Translation in 2000 and was shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award, but it was her translation of Greg MacArthur’s Toxique ou L’incident dans l’autobus (The Toxic Bus Incident) that earned her this honor in 2011.
Many of her translations have been published—L’Homme laid (Boréal), the Motel de passage series (vlb éditeur), Bye Bye Baby (L’instant scène), Traces d’étoiles (Lux), Toxique (Dramaturges éditeurs)—or adapted for the screen by noted directors such as Claude Desrosiers (Traces d’étoiles) and Louis Bélanger (Le Génie du crime).
In 2026, audiences will be able to see her translations of Joan Yago’s “À partir de là” at La Licorne and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Parachute libre at the Rideau Vert.
About carried away on the crest of a wave
David Yee’s award-winning play carried away on the crest of a wave premiered in April 2013 at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, featuring a distinct, water-filled stage designed by Camellia Koo and directed by Nina Lee Aquino. Following its acclaimed Canadian debut, the production made its U.S. premiere later that same year at The Hub Theatre in Fairfax, Virginia, directed by Helen Pafumi, which highlighted the play’s themes of global connection.
In March 2018, the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa mounted a major new production directed by Kim Collier, which moved away from the original, literal water set to adopt a surreal, dreamlike aesthetic. This version utilized advanced projection mapping and a large, moving, fabric-based visual to create a metaphorical representation of the ocean’s power on stage.
Following the initial, successful stageings in Toronto and Virginia, the script was officially published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2014. The published text subsequently won the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and the Carol Bolt Award, confirming its significant place in the contemporary Canadian theatrical canon.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
carried away on the crest of a wave
- May 2013: World Premiere, Tarragon Theatre (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Director: Nina Lee Aquino - November 2013: US Premiere, Hub Theatre (Fairfax, Virginia, USA)
Director: Helen Pafumi - March 2018: National Arts Centre production (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
Director: Kim Collier
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