Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay is a Quebecois novelist and playwright. His first professionally produced play, Les Belles-Soeurs was written in 1965. This play stirred controversy by portraying the lives of working class women while attacking the deeply religious society of 20th century Quebec. Until the 1960s, Tremblay saw Quebec as a poor province dominated by the English-speaking majority as well as the Roman Catholic Church. His plays are driven by a liberal, nationalist thought that helped form an essentially modern society. Tremblay has been openly gay throughout his life and has written most of his famous plays and novels centred on homosexual characters. These novels include The Duchess and the Commoner, La nuit des princes charmants, Le Coeur dcouvert, Le Coeur clat, and plays which include Hosanna, La duchesse de Langeais, Fragments de mensonges inutiles. Tremblay had once believed that the only reasonable solution for Quebec was to separate from Canada. His views have softened over the years and in April 2006 he declared that he did not support the arguments for the separation of Quebec. Speaking of politics in a CBC interview in 1978, Michel Tremblay said I know what I want in the theatre. I want a real political theatre, but I know that political theatre is dull. I write fables.

Tremblay has received several awards for his work including Prix Victor-Morin (1974), the Prix France-Qubec (1984), the Chalmers Award (1986) and the Molson Prize (1994). He also received the Lieutenant-Governers award for Ontario in 1976 and 1977. In 1999 he received a Governor Generals Award for the Performing Arts.