BWW Interviews: Carole Frechette Reflects on THINKING OF YU, Social Engagement

Carole Fréchette is a multi award-winning playwright based in Montreal. Her plays have been translated into 18 languages and performed around the world. In 2002, Ms. Fréchette received the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, Canada's largest theatre award. Her newest play, THINKING OF YU, which is set against the backdrop of the student protests at Tiananmen Square, is making its Quebec English-language debut at the Centaur Theatre April 24 through May 5. BroadwayWorld caught up with Ms. Fréchette to talk about her inspiration for writing the play and the themes that unite her oeuvre to date.

In February 2006, Ms. Fréchette opened her morning newspaper and saw a small article about a Chinese journalist who had just been released after serving 17 years in prison. He was 37 years old and mentally disabled, having been subjected to years of torture. His crime? Throwing paint on Mao's portrait during the 1989 Tiananmen Square riots. Ms. Fréchette was attracted by the story for various reasons. The act of throwing the paint was spectacular -- why had he done that? The prison sentence was extreme -- he had not killed, or even hurt, anyone, but the symbolism of the gesture was so great that he was imprisoned for nearly two decades. He had not acted alone; there were two other young men jailed for the same crime. At the time, Ms. Fréchette was writing a different play, so she put the article aside. But two years later, she revisited it and all of the feelings and questions returned -- THINKING OF YU was born.

THINKING OF YU is not about the Tiananmen Square riots; rather, it is about a woman, Maggie, who (much like Ms. Fréchette herself) reads the story in a newspaper. The play's other two characters are Maggie's neighbour and a young Chinese immigrant. The play focuses on the lives and dramas of these three characters and how their minds and hearts are affected by the actions of the three Chinese men more than 20 years ago. This was Ms. Fréchette's first time writing about real events and she felt a great sense of responsibility toward the three young men. She wanted to be respectful and faithful in telling their story -- neither to glorify nor to diminish their actions. Her main concern was finding the proper balance between the invented and the real.

Although inspired by a public event, the play itself is very personal. It explores how seemingly minor events in faraway places can still have an impact on how we look at the world. Ms. Fréchette hopes the play will encourage us to reflect on events in our own lives and also to consider broader questions about the world we live in and how we can contribute toward making that world a better place: How does change happen? Do we need grand gestures like this? Do we require the sacrifices of some people to effect positive change?

Ms. Fréchette is no stranger to socially engaged theatre. An actor trained at The National Theatre School, in the 1970s she was involved in the collective creation of work that revolved around social issues and efforts toward change. When she began writing her own plays, she continued to explore the theme of social injustice, often through the lives of solitary characters questioning their own place in the world. Her writing is greatly inspired by the "profound solitude," which she feels very strongly as central to the "experience of being a human being," and her plays reflect her own feelings of being an individual concerned about what is happening around her. Her work is particularly powerful today, in a time of widespread social unrest and with demonstrations for change taking place in many corners of the world. They force each of us to ask: What can I do?

THINKING OF YU was written in French, and Ms. Fréchette is thrilled to see the show being performed in English in Montreal. The English translation was done by John Murrell, with whom Ms. Fréchette has collaborated for more than 15 years. This season the play will also make its German-language debut.

THINKING OF YU, presented by Imago Theatre, runs April 24 through May 5 at the Centaur Theatre, 453 St. François-Xavier. Performance schedule: Wednesday to Saturday at 8:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday matinee at 2:30 pm. Tickets: $20-$25. Saturday matinee, April 27 and May 4 at 2:30 pm, are pay-what-you-can (Suggested donation: $10).

Box Office: 514 288-3161 or online: http://www.centaurtheatre.com/tickets.php
www.imagotheatre.ca

Photo courtesy of Carole Frechette

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