Montreal's Persephone Productions Will Perform HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE WILD

Montreal's Persephone Productions has announced their upcoming presentation of How To Survive in The Wild, running September 14-29, 2024 at Segal Centre (5170 Chem. de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal).

You're here because you want to win. 

Kevin Bérard, a young Québécois millionaire and founder of Huldu, arrives at the Segal Centre Studio to pull the curtain back on his own path to success, and to teach you how to succeed — by whatever means necessary.

How to Survive in the Wild is the English-language premiere of Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard's acclaimed Manuel de la vie sauvage. Now onstage in English at the Segal Centre Studio, How to Survive in the Wild takes on the universe of tech start-ups and the cut-throat choices required for survival in this dog-eat-dog world. A social satire with an unexpected twist, the play invites audiences in to witness the creation of an app with existentially dangerous repercussions: an AI chatbot that allows us to communicate with the dead, through the digital trace they leave behind. A riveting, humour-filled and searingly current story, How to Survive in the Wild might just be your ticket to your own success. 

This translation will be the first time Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard's work has been translated into English, in any medium. In its original French, Manuel de la vie sauvage is a story that is well-known and beloved in Quebec — a best-selling and prize winning novel, a successful and star-studded Québécois TV series, and sold-out production at Duceppe Theatre in 2021, with the production's cinematographic adaptation even winning The Gémeaux prize for Meilleure émission ou série originale produite pour les médias numériques : variétés. 

Taking place in current-day Montreal and weaving a tale of power and privilege that is of searing importance and relevance today, this story is so current and so homegrown that it begs to be shared with the English-speaking community. And who better to present this new translation, focused on young and ambitious entrepreneurs ready to risk everything for success, than a cast of local, bilingual, emerging artists?
Through bitingly funny dialogue to rival Succession, this play resonates on many whole new hyper-relevant levels. With its boldly youthful spirit filled with jargon, expressions, and rhythms natural to today's youth, the language of the play encompasses what it means to create art today. Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard's writing reflects what art should be in a post-ChatGpt world: unapologetically human. Ironically for the topic it presents, it showcases exactly what AI cannot imitate. It begs for translation work that is subtle, even artistic, to carry Baril Guérard's voice from its original French to the English. 

Translated by artistic director Rebecca Gibian — a millennial and perfectly bilingual Montrealer herself — this translation authentically reflects the way Montrealers speak, and celebrates the fact that this play is distinctly and proudly a Quebecois story, made to measure for local emerging artists to bring it to life.

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