Story-Tellers and Creatures in Contemporary Quebecois Drama: a Re-phrasing of the Question of Identity through the Medium of the Drama-Tale

Story-Tellers and Creatures in Contemporary Quebecois Drama: a Re-phrasing of the Question of Identity through the Medium of the Drama-Tale This article considers the form of narrative theatre in the works of two contemporary playwrights, Carole Frechette and Daniel Danis, who create characters which are both the tellers and the actors of their own story. These characters seem two-headed, hybrid creatures, linked with the cosmic dimension of the universe, but incapable of achieving their inner unity. These dramatic tales, in particular Carole Frechette's La Petite piece en haut de l'escalier (The Little Room at the Top of the Stairs), Daniel Danis' Le Chant du Dire-Dire (Song of the Say-Sayer) and Bled (Bled) allow a displacement of the question of Quebecois identity inasmuch as they offer a mythology detached from any specific territory. Finally these double creatures raise the more general question of how to create a play.