news | Thursday October 6, 2011

The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi at NAC Studio

Larry Tremblay’s The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi will run at NAC Studio October 12-15 this month (presented in French).

Once upon a time there was a man who suffered a traumatic childhood incident and hadn’t spoken a word since. Gaston was born in Chicoutimi, in the beautiful province of Quebec, in the great country of Canada, and he had a dream and that dream came true.

In his dream, a young boy curiously rigged out in an adult body, and with a face splintered like a Picasso painting, came knocking at the door of a pretty cottage at the edge of a vast enchanted forest, seeking comfort in a fond maternal embrace. As his dream faded, the miracle he had been waiting for for 40 years finally happened: he instantly regained the power of speech.

However, as he told his story he was astonished to find that he was uttering not his mother tongue, but English. What on earth had happened to spark this incredible transformation?

The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi is included in Talking Bodies. Larry Tremblay is currently short-listed for the Siminovitch Prize.