Gratien Gélinas (1909–1999)

This play was written and set in the late 1960s in Quebec, the time of the Quiet Revolution, which was starting to get louder with terrorist attacks being perpetrated in the name of Quebec independence. The divide between federalist and separatist often split along language lines, but could also split families, as seen in this play. Pierre Gravel is a lawyer in Montreal and has been offered a position in the federal cabinet. His son, André, is agitating for Quebec's independence. The play thus explores divided loyalties and social conditions in the province at the time. It's a very short play and feels incomplete as well. It consists basically of father and son shouting at each other while the wife/mother tries valiantly to intercede on both of their parts. The dialogue is also weighted down with clichés and stock phrases to the point where it doesn't seem believable. This could be a translation issue (I read this in English), or it could be a faithful rendering of the original French. Either way, in the English version this was quite distracting. So I would suggest reading it in French if you can.… (mer)