NEW YORK CITY: I first met the Montreal-based playwright Suzie Bastien in Limoges, France, in 2005. At the time, she was developing a new work, Après.
Her second play, LukaLila (Éditions Comp'act, 2002), had just received an award from the Journées de Lyon des auteurs de théâtre in 2002 in France. It also won the SACD de la dramaturgie francophone prize in 2004. Translated into Italian, the play was first produced in Rome in 2005.
For the first time, Bastien makes a U.S. appearance as part of hotINK at the Lark, a series of free public readings of 10 new plays from around the world, which takes place March 22-26 in New York City.
Bastien's play, The Medea Effect (L'effet Médée), will be given a public reading 3:00 p.m. Friday March 23 in a new English version translated by Nadine Desrochers and directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The original play was produced by Théâtre Blanc (Québec City) in March 2005.
I have the pleasure of facilitating a post-performance discussion with Suzie Bastien; we will talk about her play, her career and her body of work.
The reading and discussion will take place at Lark's BareBones® Studio, 311 West 43 Street, Fifth floor
(bet. 8th and 9th Avenues). To RSVP, visit www.larktheatre.org or call 212-246-2676 x224. (Subway information: A, C, & E to 42nd Street/Port Authority | 1, 2, 3, Q, R, N, S, & 7 to 42nd Street/Times Square.)
Arguably Bastien's best known work in Canada is Le désir de Gobi (LUX Éditeur, 2003), first produced by Théâtre de Quat'Sous (Montreal) in January 2000, then in Québec City, Ottawa, and Sherbrooke in 2004. Born in March 23, 1963, Bastien is member of the Playwrights Center of Montreal, Quebec.
Bastien is also the author of Le sens! Le sens!, Ceux qui l'ont connu (written at the Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon colony in 2004) and L'enfant revenant (also written in part at writers’ colonies, this time in Québec City and Lennoxville). This last piece was read at the Tarmac de la Villette (Paris) in 2008 and again in 2010 in Orléans as part of the Text'avril event.
Her short plays L'effritement 1 et 2 (Les éditions de la Gare, 2007) were first produced in Paris in July 2007. Her work has been funded by the Conseil des arts du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Centre National du Livre (France). Suzie Bastien was also the 2009 resident of the Québec Studio in Rome.
The Medea Effect is one of two plays from Canada represented in hotINK, New York's premier reading series of new plays from around the world.
The entire schedule is listed below. For more information about the plays and playwrights, visit www.larktheatre.org/programs/hotINK2011-12.html.
hotINK at the Lark 2012
www.larktheatre.org
March 22nd 3pm
From Scotland: strangers, babies by Linda McLean
A poetic exploration of the effects of a childhood crime on a woman's capacity to love and nurture, revealed through encounters with the five men in her life.
March 22nd 7:30pm
From Israel: In Spitting Distance by Taher Najib
Translated by Ros Schwartz
An Israeli-Palestinian-Actor-Playwright leaves his beloved Paris to accept a role at the National Theatre in Tel Aviv—but it’s September 10, 2002, and his dual nationality raises questions at Roissy-Charles De Gaulle Airport…a very personal story in a very political moment.
March 23rd 3pm
From Canada: The Medea Effect by Suzie Bastien
Translated by Nadine Desrochers
Reaching deep into the heart of Medea’s loss and responsibility, a very contemporary and richly felt story from Québéc, exploring two tragic and convincing voices joined in their search for forgiveness.
March 23rd 7:30pm
From Canada: Credit by Michael Mackenzie
A hedge fund manager on the brink of losing billions, looks to his prized genius mathematician to make the numbers add up-- but she's got an agenda of her own.
March 24th 3pm
From Cyprus: DNA by Giorgos Neophytou
Translated by Rhea Frangofinou
By turns poetic, lyrical, forceful and funny, DNA explores loss and commemoration, and navigating the delicate balance between them in this rich drama from Cyprus.
March 24th 5pm
Special event:
Panel on Translation, collaboration w/with PEN American Center; moderated by Cobina Gillitt
Panel on Translation, collaboration w/with PEN American Center; moderated by Cobina Gillitt
March 24th 7:30pm
From Bulgaria: The Eyes of Others by Ivan Dimitrov
Translated by Angela Rodel
Two ordinary men discover, through their everyday routines and the people they meet, the true nature of their friendship and the need, deep in each of them, to be seen by another.
March 25th 3pm
From Belarus: Thanksgiving Day, by Nikolai Khalezin
Translated by Yuri Kaliada and Rory Mullarkey
A Belarusian immigrant in the U.S., caring for an elderly American man, learns, through their relationship, what he wants and where he truly belongs.
Following the reading, special event:
A conversation with Aleksey Scherbak and Nikolai Khalezin, moderated by Barbara Lanciers
March 25th 7:30pm
From Singapore: The Shape of a Bird by Jean Tay
A young woman attempts to resurrect the memory of her brother in this surrealist reimagining of the story of Antigone, infused with tales from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
March 26th 3pm
From Ireland: Grace and Elizabeth, by Jessica Cooke
A richly imagined dramatization of the historic meeting of two larger-than-life characters: Irish pirate Grace O’Malley and England’s Elizabeth I—and a wise and witty commentary on women and power.
March 26th 7:30pm
From Latvia: Colonel Pilate, by Aleksey Scherbak
Translated by John J. Hanlon
A morality tale for every era, and every foreign occupation: a Russian officer in Afghanistan, uncomfortable with the role of occupier and skeptical of his troops’ distrust of locals, is dubbed “Colonel Pilate” by his subordinates and held accountable for his humanist inclinations.
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