Just like her

Just Like Her (Tout comme elle, in French) is a searing and daring work of poetry, written for the theatre, about the inevitability of loss and the enduring nature of love. In four acts Dupré explores the difficult, painful, yet necessary separation of daughter and mother. In each act, we hear the voice of a daughter speak: of the relationship with the mother, of feeling unloved in her differences from the mother, of giving birth herself to a daughter, and of observing her own teenage daughter, who is … just like her. The poems are followed by a conversation between Louise Dupré and acclaimed Quebec theatre director Brigitte Haentjens about writing, women, theatre and life. In June 2011, Brigitte Haentjens will be directing the English-language premiere of the play Tout Comme Elle at Luminato the Toronto Festival of Arts + Creativity.

AUTHOR

Louise Dupré

Louise Dupré is a poet, writer, critic, and professor. She is the author of eight collections of poetry and several novels, including La memoria, which won the Prix de la Société des écrivains canadiens and the Prix Ringuet de l’Académie des lettres du Québec. She teaches literature and creative writing at the Université de Québec in Montreal.

Reviews

“The wideness of Dupré’s work comes from the space left between vignettes, the breadth of the leap between moments, which takes on an emotional as opposed to a sequential logic, and which allows the reader to consider her own experience.” – The Fiddlehead

“Wry, startling, and brutally honest by turns, Dupré…capture[s] adroitly the myriad complexities, tensions, and contradictions in the construction of femininity.” – Canadian Literature

“Observational and acute, Dupré struggles with deep wounds, the scars of childhood and a loss of love. The relationship between a mother and daughter is rife with raw emotions ? anger, hatred, love, pain. It’s both a reflection and a reflector.” – Telegraph-Journal