Written on Water

by Michel Marc Bouchard, Linda Gaboriau (Translator)

Torrential rains have descended upon a small isolated village, and the overflowing river has washed away everything in its path. The mudslide has gutted the writing room, the place where a group of senior citizens used to meet to record their memories. It was after the exodus of their children that they began to commit to paper the events, large and small, that had marked their lives. Now their papers―fragments of life, scraps of memory―are strewn around the countryside, along with the fragments of their community structures, habitations and memorials. To reverse this devastation, they have to put everything back in order, they have to remember, restore and rewrite, while a group of strangers, young volunteers, pull down the physical remains of what is left standing.

But what words can capture their lives? And for whom are they writing? In his determination to save the images of who they were, Samuel, the elderly leader of the group, is blind to the new reality around him. For some of his old companions, the flood represents an opportunity to make an unspoken dream come true; for others, it is an opportunity to confess secret loves, and to talk about the future. Assisted by Danny-the-Lonely-Child, the only child who never left the village, Samuel begins to realize that these fragments can never be restored―they can only be recombined into a narrative as fresh and new and real as the hopes and dreams of their original authors.

Cast of 3 women and 3 men

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Michel Marc Bouchard (Quebec, Canadá, 1958) é bacharel em Teatro pela Universidade de Ottawa. Teve sua primeira peça de teatro produzida profissionalmente em 1983, La Contre-nature de Chrysippe Tanguay, écologist. Desde então, escreveu mais de 25 peças, traduzidas para diversos idiomas e apresentadas em diferentes países. Sua obra mais conhecida é Les Feluettes, foi roteirizada e dirigida por John Greyson em filme homônimo. Sucesso no teatro, Les Muses Orphelines e Tom à la ferme também foram adaptadas para o cinema pelos diretores Robert Favreau e Xavier Dolan, respectivamente. Ao longo de sua carreira, Bouchard recebeu importantes prêmios de artes cênicas no Canadá: Prix Journal de Montreal, Prix du Cercle des Critiques de L’outaouais, Moore Award Dora Mavor for Outstanding New Play, Floyd S. Chalmers Award Canadian Play. Recebeu nove prêmios Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards para as peças Lillies e Les Muses Orphelines. Atualmente é membro da Academia de Letras de Quebec.