






By Michel Tremblay
Translated by Linda
Directed by Alice
Gaboriau
Ronfard
Nana - Ellen David
Narrator - Emmanuel Schwartz
Set Designer - Gabriel Tsampalieros
Costume Designer - Cynthia St-Gelais
Lighting Designer - Julie Basse
Sound Designer - Joris Rey
Stage Manager - Danielle Laurin
Assistant Stage Manager - Elyse Quesnel
Runtime: 1h45
Advisory: There will be a large amount of haze used in the show.
Montreal is an incredible place in which to have the privilege to make theatre. It has such a rich and unique story of its own.
Long before Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence and encountered a nation of Iroquoian people in a place called Hochelaga, the island that the European settlers chose to call Montreal had been a point of conflict, conference, creativity and exchange since time immemorial for many Indigenous peoples including the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, Huron-Wendat, and Abénaki Nations. The people of the Kanienkéha:ka Nation — known in English as the Mohawk are now considered the caretakers of the unceded land and water around Montreal. In their language, this island bears the name of Tiohtià:ke, which means “broken in two,” because of the way the river breaks around it.
It is striking how the Kanienkéha language identifies the island as part of the river because it reminds us that we are all in the flow of a much larger story. This mighty river has for centuries carried people here from all over the world in search of new opportunities and new lives, and the Lachine Rapids that sit just off the western tip of this island have given pause to many of those journeys. The river has made contemporary Montreal into a vibrantly diverse city. We find that diversity inspiring because it is by telling each other our stories that we build bridges between our different cultures and languages.
Centaur Theatre
I am thrilled to welcome you to this beautiful new production on our wondrously renovated stage of Michel Tremblay’s For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again. Exquisitely conceived by the incomparable director Alice Ronfard and featuring two of the best actors in Canada (who just happen to live in Montreal), Ellen David and Emmanuel Schwartz, it is such an exciting way to celebrate the creative capacity that is now possible in our theatre. Before the renovation, the roof above the stage was at the same height as the roof above the audience and we had to try to make magic with a few pipes hung from the ceiling. Over the years the artists of Centaur have accomplished wonders on this stage with very limited means but the strain on our heritage building, particularly on the roof, became unsupportable.
Thanks to support from the Governments of Canada and Quebec we were able to not only repair the damage but completely transform the stage by raising the roof another 24 feet and adding a fly-tower and state-of-the-art motorized rigging system. The magical production you are about to see would have not been possible without this additional space above the stage and the new theatrical machinery inside it. Beyond tonight, this renovation will let everyone at Centaur Theatre dream in a whole new way. You could say, “The sky’s the limit!”
Eda Holmes
Artistic and Executive Director Centaur Theatre
Pour le trentième anniversaire de la création des Belles-soeurs, en 1998, le théâtre du Rideau-Vert m’avait commandé une pièce. J’avais tout de suite pensé à rendre hommage à ma mère qui était partie avant que commence ma carrière et à qui, pourtant, je devais tout : le sens du drame – oui, je suis une véritable drama queen, le sens de l’humour et le sens du dialogue - j’avais eu avec elle d’interminables et parfois absurdes conversations et discussions qui, je crois, m’avaient formé et fait de moi un humain respectable.
Je voulais en quelque sorte lui rendre tout ce qu’elle m’avait appris dans une pièce où j’essaierais de faire d’elle une véritable héroïne de théâtre en lui faisant jouer la comédie autant que la tragédie.
Encore une fois, si vous permettez (For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again) en est le résultat. À vous de juger si j’ai réussi ou non...
For the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere of Les Belles-Sœurs in 1998, I was commissioned to write a new play by Théâtre du Rideau-Vert. I immediately thought of paying tribute to my mother, who had passed away before my career began and to whom, nevertheless, I owed everything: a sense of drama yes, I’m a true drama queen a sense of humour, and a sense of dialogue –I had with her endless and sometimes absurd conversations and debates that, I believe, shaped me into a decent human being.
In a way, I wanted to repay everything she had taught me, through a play where I would try to turn her into a true theatrical heroine, playing both comedy and tragedy.
For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again is the result. It’s up to you to decide whether I succeeded or not...
Michel Tremblay May 4, 2025
Michel Tremblay's work includes 30 plays, 31 novels, 7 collections of autobiographical stories and 1 collection of stories, 7 screenplays from films or television, 47 translations or adaptations by foreign authors, 10 plays and 15 stories published in various publications, 1 opera booklet, 1 cycle of songs and 2 musicals as well as the lyrics of a dozen songs for Pauline Julien, Renée Claude, Monique Leyrac and Ginette Reno. There are also more than 2,500 stagings of his work in nearly 50 countries around the world. Translated into 40 languages, several dramatic works by Michel Tremblay have been acclaimed abroad.
His plays have been performed in many cities in Canada and the United States, as well as in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Finland, Germany, Venezuela, Romania, Japan, Spain, Brazil and Cuba. All are published in English as well as some in German, Arabic, Italian and Scottish, among others. There are even Yiddish and other versions of Les Belles-soeurs.
Michel Tremblay has received over 90 awards during his career, including the prestigious Prince Pierre of Monaco Award, Gilles-Corbeil Awards from the Émile-Nelligan Foundation and the Grand Prix de la Francophonie de l'Académie française for all of his artwork.
Alice Ronfard has directed more than 40 plays, operas, and dance shows and has won numerous awards. Her most notable productions include Shakespeare’s La tempête (The Tempest) (Grand Prix de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal), Claudel’s L’annonce faite à Marie (awarded the Prix de l’Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre), Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and Euripides' Les Troyennes, for which she received the GasconRoux Award for Best Direction. In 1997, she won the Canadian Museums Association’s Award of Excellence for her design of the exhibition Femmes, corps et âme at the Musée de la civilisation.
From 2020 to 2024, she adapted and directed La traversée du siècle, an epic 14-hour project based on the works of novelist and playwright Michel Tremblay a production for which she received the Special Prize from the Theatre Critics Association (2023–24).
From 1996 to 2003, she directed the French section of the National Theatre School of Canada alongside André Brassard.
For the past few years she has been working with young authors, directors, and actors from the Montreal theatre community, including Sébastien Harrisson (Floes at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui and La cantate intérieure at 2 Mondes), Evelyne de la Chenelière (L’imposture at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde and Une vie pour deux at Espace GO), Emmanuel Schwartz (Bérénice and Le partage at La Chapelle, and Exhibition for the FTA), Dany Boudreault (e at Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui), and Mani Soleymanlou (Un and Deux at La Chapelle). Alice also regularly teaches acting, set design, and production at various theatre schools.
An accomplished and versatile stage and screen actor, Ellen David has received multiple nominations and many accolades including a Montreal English Theatre Award (META), Winnipeg Theatre Award, and Broadway World Regional Award for My Name is Asher Lev (Segal Centre and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); the ACTRA Award for Outstanding Female Performance for the film Surviving My Mother; and the 2015 ACTRA Award of Excellence. Stage highlights include Centaur Theatre productions of The Shoplifters and God of Carnage; The Segal Centre’s productions of Beautiful, Prayer for the French Republic and Dracula; Porte Parole’s US Tour of Seeds; and Infinithéâtre’s production of King of Canada, in which she played over 25 characters.
Directing credits include Four Anglos Surviving the Covid Apocalypse at Centre St. Jax and Victoria Hall; Clybourne Park, The Book of Bob, Love, Loss and What I Wore, which she also co-produced and performed in (all at Centaur Theatre); Moonlight and Magnolias, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, and Intimate Exchanges (Theatre Lac-Brome); Where You Are and The Savannah Sipping Society (Hudson Village Theatre); and the Quebec English language premieres of Mazel Tov and The Leisure Society for Infinithéâtre.
Recent film and television credits include Mlle Bottine; Transplant; Cerebrum; the critically acclaimed series Le Temps des Framboises; upcoming comedy/horror film Back for the Holidays; and her voice can be heard in many English-language versions of series on Netflix, as well as in animation and narration.
As the expression goes “Art Imitates Life” , and where this play unravels the fabric of this profound mother/son relationship... Ellen would like to dedicate her performance to her own son who inspires her with his gifts, vision and creativity. She would also like to thank Michel Tremblay for this full circle moment, as his words were the catalyst that inspired her to make a life in the theatre after witnessing a production of Hosanna many moons ago.
Emmanuel Schwartz is a multidisciplinary artist working across stage and screen. He has collaborated with avant-garde companies such as the National Arts Centre, Festival TransAmériques, La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, and the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, where he presented works like Chroniques, Nathan, and L’Exhibition.
He has worked with renowned creators including Wajdi Mouawad, Denis Marleau, Dave St-Pierre, Mani Soleymanlou, Aice Ronfard, and Jan Lauwers' Needcompany. In film, he has appeared in Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan), Next Floor (Denis Villeneuve), the films of Jennifer Alleyn (Impetus, Kaïros) and Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes (François Girard), winning Best Supporting Actor at the 2018 Iris Awards. His performance in L’Écrivain Public earned him Best Actor in a Web Series at the 2020 Gémeaux Awards.
On stage, he was nominated for an ACAD Award for Waiting for Godot (2016) and won for Tartuffe (2017). His television credits include Blue Moon, Lâcher Prise, Virage, Dernière Seconde, and TVA’s Hôtel.
He co-starred with Céline Bonnier in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (2022) and teaches at UQAM and Collège Lionel-Groulx, where he directed Projet Pigeons and L’Avenir, winner of Best Canadian Feature at FIFA 2025. His play Le Partage premiered in 2023 and was adapted into a feature film, selected for FIFA 2024. In the summer of 2025 he will rejoin the company of long-time collaborator Wajdi Mouawad f at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece.
Trained as an architect and scenographer, Gabriel Tsampalieros has been working for 25 years as a set designer for the performing arts.
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A 2007 graduate of the National Theatre School’s set and costume design program Cynthia St Gelais creates costumes for theatre dance and opera produ les at Ridea emps at Qu mble I and mentNatio
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Danielle is a theatre artist based in Tiohtia:ke/Montreal. She got her start in professional theatre as an assistant costume designer and assistant director while working towards her BFA in Design for the Theatre at Concordia University. She later apprenticed in stage management and theatre design at the Portland Playhouse in Portland, Oregon, where she fell in love with stage management as a craft, and as an approach to life in general.
She earned her MFA in Stage Management from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia and interned at the Public Theatre in New York before returning to Cana treal since 2017, and ation since 2018. She 2, and is also the foun agency aiming to conn ring opportunities outsi
Dani
munity, where she has ies including The Sega re, Repercussion
Thea d Tableau D'Hôte. Dani mmitte as a jury liaiso
Elyse (She/Her) is a Montreal-based stage manager and assistant stage manager.
Recent assistant stage management credits include: Thy Woman’s Weeds, At the Beginning of Time, Playing with Fire (Centaur Theatre), April Fools, Indecent, Top Girls (Segal Centre), The Snow Queen (Theatre New Brunswick).
Most recent stage management credits include: Three Women of Swatow (Centaur), Sinkhole (Or six ways to disappear), Extra/ Beautiful / U, Omi Mouna (Infinitheatre), Le Petit Prince (Bishop’s University), Diggers (Black Theatre Workshop), Cymbeline (Repercussion Theatre), Meet Me (LATP/Teesri Duniya Theatre), The Sound Inside, Between Riverside and Crazy, Category E, Orphans (Coal Mine Theatre) Twelfth Night As You Like It and The Taming of the Shrew (SLSF).
She has been awarded the following: Shaw Award (Cricket Team - 2015), Pamela Mon College - 2013).
Centaur gratefully acknowledges our Director’s Circle of Donors who make so much possible through their generosity. Your generous support allows us to continue to be a beacon of excellence, relevance, and diversity.
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Centaur Theatre gratefully acknowledges the following corporations and foundations, whose generous support allows us to continue to be a beacon of excellence, relevance, and diversity.
There are a number of ways to link your organization to Centaur – a recognizable brand synonymous with excellence and diversity –including tax-deductible donations, production sponsorships, program partnerships, naming rights, and patronage at our annual Gala. For more information, contact: Haleena Mini, Director of Development haleema@centaurtheatre com • 514 288-1229 # 235
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