Ti-Coq at Th éâtre Gesu

[Denis Salter]

Dear André (and others). I, too, am always wary of claims to be the "first." 
There were, as you point out, other (much) earlier instances of bilingual 
casts. I think it is significant that, in its initial run, the production 
lasted for 200 performances.  I don't know enough to say if this remains a 
record in our theatre history.  Perhaps someone knows about this.
André: Paul Dupuis and Muriel Guibault are not members of the cast.
It is very clever to put the image of L'il Rooster inside Ti-Coq.  It 
emblematises not only the meaning of his name, but captures and expresses 
the (inner) spirit of his character. The rooster, as it were, is the father 
of the man.
As for the Player's cigarette, well, those days are nearly over, even here 
in Montréal, for as of May 31st there will be no smoking allowed in any 
public places.  I assume this includes theatrical productions, though 
perhaps exemptions will be allowed when it can be proven that smoking in a 
performance is an essential part of the characterisation. I can't image 
Ti-Coq NOT smoking!

--Denis Salter.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BOURASSA ANDRE G" <bourassa.andre_g at UQAM.CA>
To: <CANDRAMA at LISTSERV.UNB.CA>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: Ti-Coq at Théâtre Gesu


> Bonjour!
> Othe members of the troupe were perfectly bilingual: Paul Dupuis, qho was
> a war correspondant in London and had played in a few movies there; Muriel
> Guilbault, who was born in Saskatchewan.
> _Tit-vcoq_, "first bilingual play by the same troupe in Québec?? I always
> hasutate when I hear or read about anything being "first". What about the
> local english version, by John Duplessis Turnbull of Matthew Gregory
> Lewis's _The Wood Demon, or The Clock has struck_, in montreal, 1809, and
> _Le Démon de la forêt, ou l'Horloge a sonné_, 1817? Even if Duplessis
> Turnbull was accused of having copied Lewis (_The Montreal Herald_, 19 et
> 26 décembre 1818, p. 2), this is a local bilingual play, apparently
> played by the same actors. In these times, there were quite a few english
> speaking actors of french origin; see:
> <http://www.theatrales.uqam.ca/fil5.html>.
>
> Amitiés, André G. Bourassa.
> <http://www.theatrales.uqam.ca/>.
>
>
>    > I recently acquired, through a stroke of luck, a rare eight-page
> program of what would seem to be a 1949 production of Gratien Gélinas's 
> Ti-Coq at the Gesu Theatre in Montréal.  The program notes that the play 
> opened in French in May 1948, and then re-opened in the autumn of that 
> year at the Gesu, setting a Canadian record in running for 200 consecutive 
> performances. The program is for a production in English, for as it 
> somewhat cryptically notes: "The current occasion is the first in 
> theatrical history that a bi-lingual cast appears [with one exception] in 
> the identical play in a second language."  That cast includes not only 
> Gélinas, who is twice called 'Fridolin' for he was so firmly identified 
> with that role, but also Fred Barry as Papa Desilets and Denise Pelletier 
> as Germaine. The production was co-directed by Gélinas and Barry. The 
> second page contains the famous 'Karsh of Ottawa' black and white 
> photograph of Gélinas, looking very dapper.  The olive green cover has a 
> charming articulated image, as though made out of pieces of pape!
> r, of Ti-Coq, with the abstract image of a rooster in red forming his 
> eyebrows, some of his hair, his nose, and his mouth, contained within the 
> overall 'cut out' of the rest of his face, his neck, and his right hand 
> which, conspicuously, is holding a cigarette.  I say "conspicuously" 
> because the back page contains an advertisement asking "Did you notice? . 
> . . ," and then adds, "Ti-Coq smokes Player's mild," with an image of a 
> Player's package at the bottom.  I would be happy to send you a laser 
> photocopy of the program (or a scanned image) if it might be relevant to 
> your research or if you would like a copy for your collection of 
> theatrical memorabilia. It is unusual, these days, to find Montréal 
> theatrical memorabilia, pre-1950, with the exception, of course, of 
> material in institutional collections like the Lande, the BNQ, and so on.
>>
>> --Denis Salter.
>> ____________________________________
>> "In 2005, the world . . . pass[ed] the trillion-dollar mark in the 
>> expenditure, annually, on arms. We're fighting for $50 billion annually 
>> for foreign aid for Africa: the military total outstrips human need by 20 
>> to 1. Can someone please explain to me our contemporary balance of 
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>> __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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>>
>> __________________________________________________
>> Denis Salter
>> Professor of Theatre
>> McGill University
>> 853 Sherbrooke St. West
>> Montréal, QC
>> H3A 2T6
>> Tel (514) 487 7309
>> Regular Fax (514) 398 8146
>> Computer Fax (309) 294 0444
>> denis.salter at mcgill.ca
>> d.salter at videotron.ca
>> __________________
>