Skelfs, or The Rehearsal of a Romantic Drama by Michel-Marc Bouchard

Translated by Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay

Director: Maggie Kinloch
Assistant Director: Matt Addicott

In memory and celebration of the work of Bill Findlay Stellar Quines co-hosts an evening at the Traverse Theatre which includes the reading of The Skelfs, a translation of the award-wining Les Feluettes by Michel-Marc Bouchard, one of the most important Canadian playwrights. The play, first produced in 1987, is commonly regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Quebec stage and has been produced all over the world.

Prisoners in Quebec City in 1952 act out a play that recounts the circumstances of a murder that took place in rural Lac Saint-Jean in 1912. With the help of his prison mates, Simon gives his version of the events leading to the murder of Vallier, a young French exile with whom he was in love and for whose murder he was convicted. The play is performed for Monsignor Bilodeau, whom Simon has invited to hear his confession. Instead the priest must confront his own role in the tragic events of that summer of 1912.

Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay co-translated eleven Quebec plays into Scots, including eight plays by Michel Tremblay. The Traverse Theatre commissioned two of these: The House among the Stars (1992) and Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer (2000). Stellar Quines produced Jeanne-Mance Delisle’s The Reel of the Hanged Man in 2000.