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    The Madonna Painter
    The Madonna Painter
    The Madonna Painter
    Ebook119 pages55 minutes

    The Madonna Painter

    By Michel Marc Bouchard

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    At the end of the First World War, to protect his village from the spanish ?u epidemic brought home by returning soldiers, a young priest recently arrived in the Parish of Lac St-Jean commissions a wandering Italian painter to decorate the walls of the local church with a fresco dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The painter is to choose, among four local women all named Mary, a model for his work. The presence of the foreign artist, his choice of a local virgin to serve as a model and the frighteningly strange nature of his work will upset the lives and change the fate of the entire community. The town’s doctor, meanwhile, has his own prescription for what is ailing the villagers. As superstition collides with desire, The Madonna Painter unmasks a bouquet of lies disguised as a fable.

    Loosely inspired by the events surrounding the creation of the fresco that still adorns the nave of the church in Saint-Coeur de Marie, the author’s native village, the language of the play is not that of its current inhabitants. Bouchard’s characters simply echo the medieval beliefs that coloured the imagination and shaped the destiny of all Québécois, especially those living in its many rural townships until very recently, and inspire this story with their gossip about their neighbours, foreigners and the mythical marital spats between God and Satan. That fresco depicting the Virgin Mary’s ascension was the author’s ?rst encounter with art, with a foreigner and with lies, and Michel Marc Bouchard has said: “In order to portray that fresco, I became a liar and the people from my village became saints and martyrs, artists and models, lovers and misanthropes. I presented their legends the way a ?ea market hawker displays sacred objects that have been stolen and disguised for resale.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTalonbooks
    Release dateMar 5, 2010
    ISBN9780889228184
    The Madonna Painter
    Author

    Michel Marc Bouchard

    Québec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard emerged on the professional theatre scene in 1985. Since then, he has written twenty-five plays and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious National Order of Québec for his contribution to Québec culture in 2012, and the Order of Canada in 2005. He has also received le Prix Littéraire du Journal de Montréal, Prix du Cercle des critiques de l’Outaouais, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award, and the Chalmers Award for Outstanding New Play. Talonbooks has published his Christina, the Girl King, The Divine, The Madonna Painter, and Tom at the Farm, all of which have been translated by Linda Gaboriau. Translated into nine languages, Bouchard’s bold, visionary works have represented Canada at major festivals around the world.

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      Book preview

      The Madonna Painter - Michel Marc Bouchard

      Author’s Note

      The action takes place in a village that has the same name as my native village, but the language of the play is not that of its inhabitants. My characters simply echo the medieval beliefs that shaped their destiny until recently. They inspired this story, with their gossip about the marital spats between God and Satan.

      It was in Florence, the city of a thousand Madonnas, that I wrote down this fable, loosely inspired by the events surrounding the creation of the fresco that still adorns the nave of the church in Saint-Coeur de Marie in the Lac Saint-Jean region of Québec. That fresco depicting the Virgin Mary’s ascension was my first encounter with art, with a foreigner and with lies.

      In order to portray that fresco, I became a liar and the people from my village became saints and martyrs, artists and models, lovers and misanthropes. I presented their legends the way a flea market hawker displays sacred objects that have been stolen and disguised for resale.

      The Madonna Painter or The Birth of a Painting is writ in scarlet pigments, in holy wine and haemoglobin, all the shades of red that flow through us, from our sex to our souls. It is a collision of ecstasies, a bouquet of lies disguised as a fable.

      — Michel Marc Bouchard

      The first version of this play was written in the spring of 2002 during a residency at Teatro della Limonaia de Sesto Fiorentino in Florence, Italy. In June 2002, that same theatre company presented a staged reading of the play, translated into Italian and directed by Barbara Nativi. The play was awarded the Primo Arte Candoni 2002 for the best new foreign-language play presented in Italy that year.

      Madame Nativi’s artistic vision and the work of her company had a deep influence on this play, as did the Madonnas that adorn the walls of Florence.

      The Florentine version (published in Italian by Ubulibri, Milan) was first presented in a full production at Teatro della Limonaia in November 2003, and remounted at the Teatro Vittoria in Rome.

      The play was first presented in the original French (in the Montreal version) at Théâtre Espace Go in Montreal in April 2004, in a production directed by Serge Denoncourt, assisted by Geneviève Lagacé, with set design by Guillaume Lord, costumes by Ginette Noiseux, lighting by Martin Labrecque, sound design by Stéphane Richard, projections by Martin Gagné, props by Normand Blais, makeup by Jacques-Lee Pelletier, and with the following cast: Annie Charland, Eveline Gélinas, Caroline Lavigne, Evelyne Rompré, Germain Houde, Giorgio Lupano, Olivier Morin and Renaud Paradis.

      The playwright wishes to acknowledge the support of Ministère de la Culture du Québec, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Ministère des relations internationales du Québec, English Theatre of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and l’Agence culturelle du Québec in Rome.

      The play was shortlisted for the 2004 Masque for best play of the year, awarded by l’Académie québécoise du théâtre.

      This most recent version of the play was established by the author in collaboration with his English-language translator, Linda Gaboriau, during a residency at the Banff Playwrights Colony in Alberta (Canada) in May 2008.

      The English premiere of The Madonna Painter was produced by Factory Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, under the artistic direction of Ken Gass, with the participation of Iris Turcott, dramaturge. Its opening night took place on November 19, 2009 with the following cast and crew:

      YOUNG PRIEST: Marc Bendavid

      ALESSANDRO: Juan Chioran

      MARY LOUISE: Nicola Correia-Damude

      DOCTOR: Brian Dooley

      MARY FRANCES: Miranda Edwards

      MARY ANNE: Shannon Taylor

      MARY OF THE SECRETS: Jenny Young

      Director: Eda Holmes

      Assistant Director: Cory O’Brien

      Set & Costume Designer: Sue LePage

      Lighting Designer: Beth Kates

      Sound Designer: Reza Jacobs

      Stage Manager: Marinda de Beer

      Apprentice Stage Manager: Neha Ross

      Characters

      MARY FRANCES, a young woman from the village

      MARY ANNE, a young woman from the village

      MARY LOUISE, a young woman from the village

      YOUNG PRIEST

      DOCTOR

      MARY OF THE SECRETS, a young woman from the village

      ALESSANDRO, the Italian painter

      The action takes place in Saint-Coeur de Marie, Lac Saint-Jean, Québec. Fall 1918.

      Prologue

      YOUNG PRIEST:

      (reading aloud from a little notebook) A triptych. It will be a triptych. The central fresco will depict the Blessed Virgin with a halo of stars, standing on a cloud ascending into heaven. She will be dressed in a white robe, belted with a gold cord. A long blue veil will cover her head. On her chest, her sacred heart will be circled by a glorious crown and pierced by a sword; a few drops of her sacred blood will glisten like scarlet pearls. In her left hand, she

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