Dear Chekhov

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A table set outside in beautiful fall weather. A turkey roasting in the oven. Everything seems set for a festive family dinner – except that the playwright wants to rewrite his play. In Dear Chekhov, the renowned Michel Tremblay (re)examines an old unfinished script, a tribute to the legendary author of The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull. Will the play stand up in performance? The question obsesses the narrator, Tremblay’s alter ego Jean-Marc. And then there is Benoit, the author-brother, who settles his accounts with a detestable young critic, the current flame of their sister. This Great Actress has given her career a boost by working with a trendy millennial director, trashing Chekhov (and their mother’s memory) in the process. Dear Chekhov presents Michel Tremblay in total control of his art, holding a mirror up to the theatre in an irresistible “Chekhovian reflection of what we are.”

Cast of 3 women and 5 men

AUTHOR

Linda Gaboriau

Linda Gaboriau is a Montreal-based dramaturge and literary translator. She has worked as a freelance journalist for the CBC as well as the Montreal Gazette, and worked in Canadian and Quebecois theatre. Gaboriau has won awards for her translations of more than 100 plays and novels by Quebec writers, including many of the Quebec plays best known to English Canadian audiences. She is the founding director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre.