LA BRUIT DES OS QUI CRAQUENT Wins Governor General's Literary Award

In 2009, as the world celebrates the 20th anniversary of the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, the play Le bruit des os qui craquent, which explores the place of children in times of war and the hard reality of child soldiers, has won two of the most important distinctions in Canadian theatre. Suzanne Lebeau's text, published by Leméac, won the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, and for his direction of the play Gervais Gaudreault won the Prix de la critique 2009, young audiences category, awarded by the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre.

GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD

Suzanne Lebeau won the Governor General's Literary Award, Drama category, for the play LE BRUIT DES OS QUI CRAQUENT, published by Leméac Éditeur.

The finalists and winners for the Governor General's Literary Awards are chosen by peer assessment committees appointed by the Canada Council for the Arts. The drama committee, composed this year of Marie-Christine Lê Huu, Pierre-Yves Lemieux, and Robert Marinier, commented about the winning text:

"Le bruit des os qui craquent is a rare, courageous and beautiful work. Suzanne Lebeau conveys the devastating effects of war on children with sensitivity and uncompromising rigour. Directly and with heartbreaking lucidity, she broaches the question of individual and collective responsibility, and proposes empathy as the road toward hope and ultimately, redemption."

Leméac, a French-language publisher specializing in literature (novels, plays, essays, biographies), maintains a detailed, attentive, and passionate literary focus. Founded in 1957 by Gérard Leméac, the publishing house first put out textbooks and histories, as well as children's picture books. In 1968, the theatre imprint began to become very successful. Since then more than a million copies of Quebec plays have been sold. Novels and plays form the lion's share of Leméac's activities.
Le bruit des os qui craquent has also been published by Éditions Théâtrales in France; this well-established publisher is known for a stringent editorial policy for both literary and theatrical works. Éditions Théâtrales has published eight of Suzanne Lebeau's plays in eight years. The Spanish-language version of the text is currently in press at Primer Acto in Spain.

The author Suzanne Lebeau, who has written more than 25 plays and a number of translations, is known as one of the leaders in playwriting for young audiences. For Le bruit des os qui craquent, she also received the Prix des Journées de Lyon des auteurs de théâtre in 2007, the Distinction de la Comédie-Française in 2008, and the Prix Sony Labou Tansi des lycéens in 2009. The play, premièred by Le Carrousel and Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui in 2009, will be produced at La Comédie-Française in February 2010.

PRIX DE LA CRITIQUE

The Prix de la critique 2009, young audiences category, was awarded to LE BRUIT DES OS QUI CRAQUENT by Suzanne Lebeau, directed by Gervais Gaudreault, a production of Le Carrousel and Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui.
 
On November 3, 2009, the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre (AQCT) publicly announced its award winners for the 2008–09 season. The Prix de la critique is awarded annually to the best shows in Quebec City and Montreal as judged by the members of the AQCT. The finalists are determined by a members' vote and the winning shows are agreed upon by discussion.

"To dare to address the horrible reality of child solders, to dare to denounce it, took the experience, sensitivity, and commitment of the two people who have been behind Le Carrousel for almost 35 years. The alternation of voices – that of a Western nurse and those of a pair of children fleeing toward a better life – pinpoints and crystallizes our powerlessness to break the cycle of violence. By enabling the performances to avoid the trap of sensationalism, the staging established a skilful distancing from the horror of the situation." (AQCT)

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