The Seven Days of Simon Labrosse

Artword Theatre
in co-production with
Montreal Young Company &
Gravy Bath Productions
April 08, 2005 – May 01, 2005
by Carole Frechette
translated by John Murrell
directed by Michael Shamata
lighting design:
David Perreault Ninacs (Montreal)
Daniele Guevara (Toronto)
wardrobe: Megan Mitchell-Downey
stage manager: Shauna Japp
starring
Paul Fauteux
Mike Hughes
Manon St-Jules
The Seven Days of Simon Labrosse is a darkly comic play about the psychological effects of feeling useless in the world.
Simon Labrosse, an unemployed young man, invites the public to witness a few scenes from his life, enacted with the help of his reluctant friends, Leo, the gloomy poet, and Nathalie, the fanatical personal development enthusiast. Inventive and doggedly optimistic, Simon shares his plans for reinsertion into public life. By turns emotional stunt-man, finisher of sentences, ego-enhancer and emptiness eradicator, he desperately tries to find his place in society. Under the constant pressure of failure and rejection, Simon's faith eventually weakens until in complete seclusion, without money and homeless, he offers his last value: himself.
Internationally recognized playwright Carole Fréchette’s Governor General’s Award-winning The Four Lives of Marie garnered eight Dora Award nominations and won the 1998 Chalmers Award for Best New Play. Her other plays include Elisa's Skin and The Seven Days of Simon Labrosse – both nominated for Governor General’s Awards – along with Jean de Béatrice, which opened at Theatre d’Aujourd’hui in March of 2002. In that same year, Carole Fréchette was the first winner of the Siminovitch Prize for playwriting.