THREE MOMENTS IN QUEBEC THEATRE HISTORY: Les Faux Brillants by Félix-Gabriel Marchand and by Jean-Claude Germain

Louise H. Forsyth

Félix-Gabriel Marchand's play Les Faux Brillants was written in the early 1880s and first published in its entirety in 1885.¹ Its first performance took place in 1905, after Marchand's death, with the second not occurring until 1977, when Jean-Claude Germain presented a modernized version of it in the form of what he called a paraphrase.² By virtue of their dramatic qualities, the two versions of the play are extremely interesting to study and compare, while the history of their creation and performance provides insight into some of the most exciting moments in Quebec theatre history.

The spontaneous pleasure which can be enjoyed in creating for the theatre seems to have been the primary motivating force for both Marchand and Germain. The pursuit of such pleasure is significant and can have profound political implications in a society which traditionally viewed the pursuit of individual pleasure as sinful and which did not conceal its distrust of theatrical activity. Dramatic events were allowed to take place only if it could be shown that they served a moral purpose, as defined by very strict ideological standards. Despite strong social pressure, such a consideration, whereby theatre should above all instruct and uplift, seems to have been of minor importance for Marchand and Germain, both of whom have responded imaginatively to the conflicting forces in the world around and derived enjoyment out of giving them dramatic form. Jean-Claude Germain calls such an autonomous creative act the theatrical function, and he is convinced it has been present far more often in Quebec's cultural history than is usually recognized: 'Il y a donc toujours eu au Québec des gens qui par goût, par plaisir du plaisir, ont rempli la fonction théâtrale dans la société.... ³ Germain recognized the theatrical function filled by Marchand and paid homage to it in a superbly creative way when he presented an exciting dramatic spectacle called Les Faux Brillants, an imaginative transformation of a text lying inanimate in the dust of history.

A study of the history of Les Faux Brillants takes us through three distinct periods: the late nineteenth century, the early twentieth century, the 1970s. Each of these periods will be discussed after a consideration of the two dramatists and their work.

Félix-Gabriel Marchand (1832-1900) was a successful notary, journalist and politician.⁴ After founding and editing two newspapers, each of which was to have quite a long history, he was elected as a Liberal member of the Quebec Legislative Assembly from St. Jean d'Iberville in 1867. He continued to represent that riding for thirty-three years until his death in 1900. After occupying several major positions in the government, including that of Speaker, he became Quebec's first Liberal Premier. As Premier, he gave top priority to the management by Quebec of its own natural resources and the reform of an outdated school system. Unfortunately Marchand, a progressive, intelligent and dedicated politician, was well ahead of his time. His dream of a government-controlled school system was not to be realized until 1964. He was forced to withdraw his bill, which would have created a Quebec Ministry of Education and which had already been passed by the Legislative Assembly, under extreme pressure exercised by the Archbishop of Montreal, Msgr. Paul Bruchési.

As a young man Marchand had been able to spend several months in Europe before having to settle down in his professional career. He was to maintain his interest in his cultural heritage throughout his life and was a sufficiently prolific writer that one could speak of his writing as a secondary career. He was the author of essays, poems, four plays and the libretto for an opera. His best and most ambitious play was Les Faux Brillants. It is a comedy in three acts, which reveals the influence of Molière, Beaumarchais, Augier ⁵ as well as the vaudeville-melodrama tradition of the nineteenth century. While certainly not a work of genius, the play is well-constructed and original, written in alexandrines, the quality and variety of which show him to be a master of this traditional form.

Marchand clearly made no attempt to invent a new story for his play. Like many of the world's best dramatists he adapted a very banal anecdote to serve his comic purposes. His most significant invention is found in his comic language and other comic devices, including an original use of the comic aside. He chose the story of the foolish, new-rich bourgeois, eager to arrive in society, as a suitable medium to hold up a satirical mirror to the foibles of his society. The bourgeois Dumont has two daughters, one of whom shares his blind infatuation with high society and false brilliance. A con man, pretending to be an Italian baron, is all too eager to flatter Dumont's illusion and to sign a marriage contract for the hand of the deluded daughter. Dumont is delighted by this promise of alliance with nobility. In order to be even more sure of the prospect of leaving his humble origins behind, he forces his second daughter to anticipate marriage with the 'baron's' accomplice, a phony count. Happily, as good fortune and the comic convention would have it, the daughter's true love intervenes in the nick of time, with the help of a long-lost nephew of Dumont; the scoundrels are revealed; Dumont's fortune is saved, and the play ends in the anticipation of three marriages. Thematically, the play's ridicule is directed most strongly against those in a materialistic society who allow themselves to be deceived by false appearances and who believe that money can buy all they desire.

Jean-Claude Germain (b. 1939) began his career as a student of history at the Université de Montréal.⁶ As in the case of Marchand, a variety of activities and kinds of employment have assured that Germain has a profound understanding of society and the individual in it. His interest in theatre has remained since his teen-age years, and for over ten years it has been a full-time career for him. He founded the Théâtre Antonin Artaud in 1958, during his student years. Since that time he has become one of the most important people involved in Quebec theatre. As writer, theatre director and critic, his influence has been decisive in the sixties and seventies. His was probably the first voice to be heard recognizing the importance of Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs. From 1968 to 1971 Germain was Executive Secretary of the very important Centre d'essai des auteurs dramatiques. In 1969 he gave form and direction to his vision of a theatrical alternative when he founded the Théâtre du Même Nom, the acronym of which (TMN) is a challenge to the theatre establishment represented by the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM). Germain founded Le Théâtre d'aujourd'hui, a very lively small theatre on Papineau. Street in 1970. There he has produced and prepared for publication a considerable number of theatrical texts and critical writings. In the course of its ten-year existence, only Quebec plays or Quebec adaptations of foreign plays have been produced at Le Théâtre d'aujourd'hui. Germain believes in Quebec theatre and in the need to give it energetic encouragement. His denunciation of the practice of most often mounting plays in Quebec taken from the French canon reveals his firmly held belief that the weight of the great French theatrical tradition has served to prevent the development of theatre and dramatic literature in Quebec. He regrets the absence of a Quebec repertory theatre and an inadequate appreciation of the significant developments which have already occurred on the Quebec stage. If he had the necessary support and resources, Germain would transform Le Théâtre d'aujourd'hui into a much larger permanent theatre where Quebec repertory could develop in the form of a dynamic, living tradition.

Were the idea of such a Quebec repertory to gain acceptance, new productions of important plays of the past would regularly occur. The public would have the opportunity to see re-creations of the plays of such writers as Jacques Ferron, Michel Tremblay, Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, Jean Barbeau, Jean-Claude Germain, as well as the many forgotten texts of the past. Germain perceives a strong link between the dramatic creations of the past and the vitality of a society's cultural existence:

Le répertoire c'est l'idée de la permanence, pas nécessairement celle de la pérennité. Le répertoire pour une collectivité donnée, c'est le corpus d'oeuvres dramatiques qu'elle a accumulées, à travers les années de son existence et qu'il appartient, à chaque nouvelle génération, de faire revivre selon, bien sûr, ses besoins, ses goûts, ses modes ou ses nécessités. C'est en ce sens que j'ai amorcé l'aventure des Apocryphes québécois avec les Faux Brillants de Fé1ix-Gabriel Marchand et que j'ai l'intention, coûte que coûte, de poursuivre.⁷

Germain presented Les Faux Brillants de Félix-Gabriel Marchand, paraphrase at Le Théâtre d'aujourd'hui between March 24 and May 15, 1977. The production was well received by the public, with the result that it was revived for another month later that year between November 17 and December 22. The play is the first in the series of re-creations of Quebec texts which Germain has announced under the rubric of 'Apocryphes québécois,' using apocrypha to refer to texts which the supposed specialists in the field, still overly impressed by European traditions, have not yet recognized as authentic and valuable. The relevance of such a concept in the problematic area of Canadian Literature is self-evident. Germain has indicated informally that the next play to be presented in the 'Apocryphes québécois' series is to be a modern version of two of Joseph Quesnel's plays: Colas et Colinette and L'Anglomanie.⁸

In his paraphrase of Les Faux Brillants, Germain has retained most of the basic components of the Marchand text. The emphasis has, however, changed. The satirical attack on the snobbish bourgeoisie is now less important than the celebration of dramatic creation. It is a spectacle on the creation of spectacle. From one version to the next the message remains that it is dangerous to allow oneself to be deceived by illusion and appearance, but the means used by Germain to convey this message sometimes differ markedly from Marchand's techniques. For both dramatists the language of the text is extremely important. Marchand has chosen to use the subtle variations possible within the structures of the classical, rhymed alexandrine. Germain's text is striking in its use of a rich variety of language levels. Those characters having pretentions to nobility continue to express themselves in Marchand's polished alexandrines, but as their façade slips they drop from one language level to another. At such moments the parody, which offers an originally elevated statement in the form of a common idiomatic expression, is usually hilarious.

Marchand wrote his plays at a time when Quebec society showed many signs of tension between opposing ideologies. On the one hand, these were the years when Ultramontanism was at its height, with most members of society giving unquestioning obedience to the authority of the Church in both private and collective matters.⁹ Nevertheless, links had been reestablished between Quebec and France, a post-revolutionary France where radically new political ideas were circulating as socio-economic structures underwent a process of rapid evolution. The arrival in 1855 in Quebec of La Capricieuse, the first French boat to land since the Conquest, marked the re-establishment of communications between Quebec and France. Books became available and began to circulate; soon touring theatre companies from France were arriving. A well-educated minority in Quebec seized the opportunity to travel, read and discuss new ideas. While not showing itself openly rebellious, this minority was unwilling to give blind obedience in all matters to institutionalized authority and to allow the clergy to dictate what books could be read and discussed, what forms of entertainment were suitable. Such a manifestation of a certain kind of independent thought made it difficult for Church leaders to exercise as tight control as some of them wished over theatrical activity. Indeed, tours of both French and English-speaking professional companies grew increasingly numerous and popular during this period, while opposition to this new trend in social behavior expressed itself strongly in the major information media of the time. That staunch proponent of orthodoxy, Msgr. François Laflèche of Trois-Rivières, said in 1880 in response to the announced tour of the Compagnie d'Opéra français:

Quand il viendra au milieu de vous de ces troupes de comédiens et plus particulièrement des comédiens français, gardez-vous d'y assister, à moins que vous ne soyez assurés sur bonne autorité qu'ils ne pèchent pas contre la morale. Cest un fait malheureusement trop certain que la plupart d'entr'eux sont des athées, des libres-penseurs ou des gens de moeurs dissolues, et prenez grand soin de ne pas les encourager.¹⁰

Sarah Bernhardt's first tour of North America, which also occurred in 1880, drew the following reaction from the ultra-conservative writer and journalist Jules-Paul Tardivel:

Les acteurs et les actrices ne sont que des amuseurs publics. Dans la vie sociale, ils occupent la rnême position que le montreur d'ours, le bouffon, 1'écuyer de cirque, l'organisateur de ménagerie, le joueur de marionnettes, et pas plus qu'eux, its n'ont droit à une ovation. ¹¹

All forms of public spectacle were condemned, particularly if they involved mixing the sexes, whether as performers or spectators, and regardless of what kind of theatre was involved: professional or amateur, in the colleges and convents or in the tents of the Dime Museums.¹² Theatrical activity was considered to be a threat to the very survival of French-Canadian cultural traditions, since it was viewed as a dangerous exhibition of the flesh, a sinful appeal to pride and sensuousness, a temptation offered by a corrupt and materialistic society. In view of this dominant ideological position, the courage shown by the politician Félix-Gabriel Marchand in writing his plays and seeking to have them performed must be admired.

Marchand was not alone in seeking to encourage theatrical activity in Quebec. He belonged to the first generation of those who were sufficiently talented and numerous to have a major and lasting impact on Quebec theatre. His friend Louis Fréchette (1839-1908), whose greatest talents were certainly not as a dramatist but whose passion for theatre in general and for Sarah Bernhardt in particular became legendary, saw two of his plays performed to an enthusiastic crowd at the Academy of Music in 1880. Another contemporary, Calixa Lavallée, organized in both Montreal and Quebec sumptuous operatic performances involving casts of hundreds in 1877, 1878 and 1879. Another contemporary, the opera star Emma Albani, was the first Canadian to achieve international fame as a professional performer, although it must be admitted that she had to go abroad to do so.

Félix-Gabriel Marchand received early encouragement in his desire to be a playwright. In 1871 he showed the script of his first two-act vaudeville Erreur n'est pas compte to the controversial director of a touring company from the West Indies, Alfred Maugard. Maugard immediately decided to perform the play in the city of Quebec, with outstanding success. Five months later another successful performance took place in Marchand's home town of Saint-Jean. A second play, Un Bonheur en attire un autre, was published and successfully performed in 1883 in the Opera House of Saint-Jean as a benefit performance for the 'familles des martyrs de l'insurrection canadienne de 1837-38.' The same play was performed again in 1889 by an amateur group in the Academy of Music of Quebec City.

It is clear that Félix-Gabriel Marchand derived considerable pleasure and satisfaction from his creations for the theatre. He continued to write, but was not to see another of his plays performed in his lifetime. Les Faux Brillants had its première in 1905, five years after his death, in an amateur production at the Monument National. The 'opérette délicieuse,' Le Lauréat, which he wrote in collaboration with Joseph Vézina, was received enthusiastically in 1906 at the Auditorium in Quebec. Georges Bellerive has indicated its outstanding success:

Au nombre des plus brillantes manifestations artistiques et littéraires dont Québec a été le théâtre et dont nos littérateurs et musiciens les plus distingués ont gratifié ses citoyens, on doit assurément compter les deux soirées musicales et littéraires qui ont été données, les 26 et 27 mars 1906, lors des deux premières représentations de cette délicieuse opérette.¹³

By the end of the nineteenth century, Montreal had become an exciting centre of theatrical activity. The newspapers of the day show that local productions were occurring, touring shows were arriving and critics were beginning to comment on the quality of the performances. However, until the last decade of the nineteenth century it seems that most of this activity took place in English, with all of Montreal's theatres owned by English groups. This situation changed so substantially during the 1890s that by the end of the decade information available through the newspapers of the time suggests that theatrical activity in French and in French theatres was having considerable success. A French-speaking theatre public developed quite rapidly. This shift may be attributed, at least in part, to the many touring shows and first-rate actors and actresses who visited Quebec after 1880, to the proximity of an active English theatre and to the formation of many amateur groups and literary societies. All of these factors could be related to a new sense of cultural uniqueness in Quebec which emerged during these years.

The Monument National was built in 1894 under the auspices of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste (illustration). This imposing structure almost immediately became the cultural focal point for the French of Montreal. Prior to its construction, dramatic performances and concerts took place only in such theatres as the Theatre Royal or the Academy of Music, only occasionally and exceptionally in French.¹⁴ A variety of events were soon scheduled at the Monument National: meetings, addresses, concerts, amateur dramatic performances and elocution lessons. The idea was soon conceived of creating a permanent amateur company at the Monument National in order to give graduates of the elocution program an opportunity to use their skills, to give the public an opportunity to see good plays in French, as well as to encourage Canadian authors to create plays having Canadian subjects. Even Msgr. Jean Bruchési, Archbishop of Montreal, known for his disapproval in general of theatrical activity, publicly indicated his support for this initiative. It was even allowed that the sexes be mixed in both cast and audience, thereby making a much broader range of spectacle possible. Msgr. Bruchési added the weight of his presence to the first organization meeting and the first performance.

The new permanent amateur company was called Les Soirées de famille. ¹⁵ It was formed in 1898 by Elzéar Roy. Its announced intention of offering good family entertainment every Thursday night marks the beginning of permanent French-speaking theatre in Montreal. Many people participated in Les Soirées de famille in the course of its three seasons (1898-1901). The constant changes in the company created the problem of lack of continuity, but had the advantage of allowing extensive participation, thereby contributing to the general education of the public regarding theatre. It must be noticed too that a core of members remained in the Soirées throughout its three seasons. Each season lasted 35 weeks on average, with a new play produced almost every week.

Writers of the time were quick to realize the cultural significance of these Soirées. Gustave Comte, a journalist with a strong and intelligent interest in theatre, wrote in Les Débats:

Nos amis des Soirées de famille ne sont que des amateurs, faisant du théâtre, par amusement [ ... ]. Leur passe-temps est utile au peuple. Ce dernier s'instruit en assistant aux jeudis du Monument, et il s'habitue tellement au répertoire français que plus tard il subventionnera une troupe de professionels. Alors nos amateurs, à titre de précurseurs, auront-fait quelque chose de patriotique et de national; ils auront participé au développement intellectuel du peuple canadien-français.¹⁶

By situating this theatrical activity in its socio-cultural context, Comte is suggesting that the members of the Soirées are effectively filling the theatrical function as Jean-Claude Germain defined it. Similar remarks about the importance of theatrical activity, accompanied by good theatre criticism, are found in a number of the smaller periodicals of the time, such as Le Réveil, Le Taon, Le Passe-Temps. Fred Pelletier expressed most succinctly the bonds between vitality in the theatre and cultural survival:

... le théâtre est aujourd'hui, pour nous, une question de la plus haute importance. Sans compter que c'est surtout en possédant notre scêne nationale que nous nous affirmons comme nation.¹⁷

Amateur theatre was strong in Montreal and throughout the towns and cities of Quebec. This amateur base was complemented by touring shows and a growing number of permanent professional companies which were able to survive by the early 1900s. After the bold initiative taken by Les Variétés (1898), the first professional company in Montreal which was to last was the Théâtre National, founded in 1900 by Messrs. Daoust and Ratelle. They brought together the talents of some who had worked in Les Soirées de famille and of others with professional experience, who had usually come to Montreal with a touring show.¹⁸

The company of the Théâtre National presented a new play almost every week, with the first season lasting an incredible fifty-four weeks. Subsequent seasons were shortened to an average forty-six weeks. The most famous member of the Théâtre National was Palmieri (pseudonym of Joseph Archambault) who, during his years as a law student, participated in the amateur activities at the Monument National.¹⁹ Palmieri has recounted in his memoirs many amusing anecdotes, but has also revealed the company's gruelling schedule: morning rehearsals, afternoon and evening performances, followed by full late-night rehearsals for next week's production. As an example of the level of activity, we have an indication that between its first performance on 9 September 1900 and 27 May 1907 the Théâtre National put on about 400 plays, with about 4,500 performances. Some forty of the plays performed were written by French Canadians.²⁰

Certain names associated with this magnificent theatrical venture have taken on almost mythic proportions in Quebec theatre history: Palmieri, Elzéar Hamel, J.-P. Filion, Godeau (Antonin Bailly), Petitjean, Blanche de la Sablonnière, Georges Gauvreau, Julien Daoust. Jean-Claude Germain has saluted these pioneers as comrades across time through his fraternal gesture of dedicating his production of Les Faux Brillants to them. The text indicates clearly that it is a tribute to both the creativity of the play's original author, Félix-Gabriel Marchand, who is actually a character in Germain's play, and to the vitality of the leading actors during the period when the play was first produced.²¹

In view of the constant material difficulties faced by the Théâtre National, there must have been considerable pressure to mount plays assured of popular favor, such as the latest hit from Paris. While programs show that this was the case at the other major professional theatre of the time, Les Nouveautés, the artistic Directors at the Théâtre National sought to present plays which would please the public, with an accent on artistic quality and a determination to encourage plays from Quebec as much as possible. Although copyright laws were not yet applicable in Quebec, the Théâtre National offered $50 to Quebec authors for the rights to their plays.²² In 1903 the Théâtre National organized a playwriting contest and performed several of the winning texts. Authors and members of the theatre community were enthusiastic about such an undertaking, although there seems to have been little public enthusiasm. The foreign import inevitably received public preference.

Félix-Gabriel Marchand had been aware much earlier of this typically Canadian attitude. In Les Faux Brillants he satirized that social vice, whereby one foolishly admires a pretentious façade, particularly if it claims not to be Canadian. Such admiration renders one blind to the genuine merits of one's own social reality, which happens to be too close at hand.

Jean-Claude Germain has termed this adulation of what is foreign our cultural schizophrenia.²³ Much earlier, Colombine expressed her frustration that only plays from France were taken seriously by the theatre-going public:

[Le théâtre français] arrache au théâtre canadien. ... sa part d'héritage. ...Présente-t-on une pièce canadienne sur la scène, c'est au prix de combien d'humiliations .... M. Gauvreau a payé de sa peau bien souvent un dévouement qu'on n'a pas estimé a sa juste valeur! Il fallait presque de l'héroïsme pour faire jouer sur la scêne du théâtre National des pièces canadiennes, rejetées de partout.²⁴

Colombine believed that with even modest encouragement, and perhaps some reasonable government subsidies, a proud French-Canadian tradition could be created. By 1908 it was already beginning to seem too late. She lamented that the Monument National, which only ten years earlier had offered such hope for a cultural renaissance, was standing virtually empty:

Il y a en plein centre de Montréal, un bloc de pierre carré qui ressemble étrangement à ces menhirs, derniers vestiges des races préhistoriques, on l'a baptisé du nom de Monument National-nom sinistrement prophétique, car ce vaste caveau semble destiné à recouvrir les cendres d'une race éteinte à son aurore [ ... ]. Comédie de celui qui arbore un patriotisme à feu et à sang et qui ne dépenserait pas cinquante centins pour assister à une pièce canadienne.²⁵

During the period when the Monument National was a focal point for a large variety of cultural activities in Montreal, various amateur theatrical productions took place in it, even after the demise of Les Soirées de famille. It was under these circumstances that Le Cercle dramatique des auteurs canadiens chose to give Marchand's text Les Faux Brillants its first production. The play opened on 28 February 1905, directed by J. Oscar Turcotte. It was a gala evening under the patronage of 'M. le maire, madame la mairesse et plusieurs personnes éminentes.'²⁶ The theatre critic of La Patrie indicates the evening was an enormous success, but unfortunately gives few details about the production. In this case, as frequently happens with amateur productions, the theatre historian has great difficulty obtaining information about performance details, since theatre critics usually provide them only when professional productions are involved.

In his version of the play, Jean-Claude Germain has imaginatively recreated the circumstances which would have surrounded that original performance. It was a period when the presence of dignitaries enhanced the tone of the evening, a practice which served to attract spectators wishing to be seen on such auspicious occasions. The mayor and the other eminent persons would undoubtedly have been invited to address the audience before the curtain was raised. They would probably have been introduced ceremoniously by the director of the company.

Germain has his company director recognize for the occasion a fictitious author and Prime Minister, none other than Félix-Gabriel Marchand himself, who is seated in one of the loges and who makes the long opening address for the benefit of the spectators and assembled actors. In addition, music was an invariable part of a theatrical program in the early years of the twentieth century. In order to reproduce that experience for today's audience, Germain has the actors and actresses salute the character Marchand in song, using the music and a slightly modified version of the final chorus of Marchand's last play, the comic opera Le Lauréat.

In such a creative and imaginative way, Germain has succeeded in capturing the spirit one would probably have felt in a Montreal theatre at the time when Les Faux Brillants was first performed. Germain states in his opening remarks about costumes and stage design that he was trying to

mettre le présent dans le passé, là où il était d'ailleurs virtuellement présent comme avenir [ ... ] tout doit être mis en oeuvre pour faire apparaître au premier plan ce qui ultimement distingue absolument un temps d'un autre: sa théâtralisation. ²⁷

Germain has rediscovered the source of energy in the theatricality of a decade when the taste for theatre among professional and amateur actors, writers and spectators was very strong, resulting in a level of activity in the French-speaking theatre which was not to recur until the exciting years of the sixties.

The most striking quality of Germain's paraphrase is its celebration of the creation of theatrical spectacle. While the subject of his play is a certain social group, his referent is not the 'real' world of society, but rather the Marchand text, which, both in its performed and published version, constitutes an integral part of Germain's play. Thus, Germain's paraphrase is a play about theatrical creation, a joyous celebration of the creative spirit, which, despite all opposition, has existed throughout Quebec's history. Germain has created a certain kind of play within a play, with the audience first introduced to the players, the director of their fictitious company and a reincarnation of the original author. Through his effective use of frequent asides, Marchand had enjoyed using every possible opportunity to remind the spectators that they were watching a play, a work of artifice and invention, and not a slice of reality. Germain insists even more strenuously that his theatre is not illusionistic. Through a variety of distancing techniques, which are fundamental to all his writing for the stage, Germain is appealing to the imagination and the freedom of each spectator. In reclaiming a forgotten facet of Quebec's cultural heritage through a lively re-animation of one of its texts, he is making a strong political statement against fixed conventions and lifeless cultural traditions.

Those who have criticized Germain's revival of an old and forgotten text, and they have been many despite the play's popular success, have assumed that Marchand's text is without intrinsic interest and merit.²⁸ In fact, Germain seems to have selected Les Faux Brillants for the first of his 'Apocryphes québécois' precisely because he recognized Marchand's wit and the imaginative dramatic qualities of the original text, while admiring the talent, honesty and courage of a Quebec author too little known. By using an intertextual approach, that is by creating a new text out of the old, Germain manages simultaneously to convey a sense of the history of Quebec theatre and to double the intensity of his celebration of creativity.

Since the thirties and forties, the time of Les Compagnons de Saint-Laurent (formed by le père Legault) and Gratien Gélinas' Fridolinades ²⁹ Quebec theatre has developed at an extraordinary rate. Its role in affirming the cultural reality and language of Quebec during the Quiet Revolution and subsequently, through the contribution of such great dramatists as Michel Tremblay, has been decisive. Jean-Claude has been one of the leaders in this development, and in recent years he expresses the need for Quebec theatre to move yet further in order to establish its existence as a continuing reality. Through the creation of plays such as Les Faux Brillants he re-affirms the living basis of Quebec theatre history and proclaims the continuing vitality of those who have created in it.

Although the Marchand text is a precious part of Quebec theatre history and an essential component in its potential repertory, Germain was well aware that the original Les Faux Brillants is no longer a living dramatic text. Its effective revival on stage requires that it be trans-lated, trans-coded, trans-formed for today's generation of theatre-goers, since yesterday's linguistic and theatrical signs no longer convey the same messages. Codes and conventions change. Therefore, Germain's fertile imagination has created a new network of signifiers in order to present what remains basically the same play. Examples of this technique, whereby the signifiers are changed so that the same signified is conveyed, are found throughout the play, in language, costumes, set, gesture and dénouement. The décor, for example, must use furniture seen to belong in the home of a new-rich bourgeois, who has developed no taste and is impressed only by what money can buy. Such an effect was created in the Victorian era by elaborately overstuffed pieces of furniture. Since Victorian pieces no longer evoke a spontaneous association with the new-rich, Germain used a different vogue in furniture: chrome-plated wrought iron in the Italian style. Similarly when it came to costumes, suits and dresses retained the Victorian cut but were fashioned in the most stylish of today's fabrics: denim.

The play's ending marks the most significant departure from the original Marchand text. However, once again, Germain has succeeded in creating a similar effect using very different means. Marchand achieved his happy ending using one of the conventions of melodrama: the unexpected return of a lost relative whom the audience had believed dead, the victim of the villain's villainy. Germain's ending puts even more emphasis on the use of inventiveness to bring the play's events to a satisfying conclusion. His dénouement is an extraordinary display of imagination and theatrical gesture, suitably punctuated by dramatic sound effects and exaggerated movement. The final implicit statement of both plays is: 'The play's the thing.'

When Jean-Claude Germain published his paraphrase, along with production photographs as he always does, he also reproduced in its entirety and in the original format the Marchand text, along with drawings by Henri Julien, one of the best-known illustrators of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century period. Both in this publication and in the successful productions, Germain is performing an extraordinary role as a theatre historian. By literally bringing the Marchand text back to life he is affirming the vitality of the creative spirit in Quebec across time, and he is further proclaiming his solidarity with all those theatre people in the past who refused to allow adversity, apathy, opposition and lifeless convention to stifle their freedom and imaginative power.

THREE MOMENTS IN QUEBEC THEATRE HISTORY: Les Faux Brillants by Félix-Gabriel Marchand and by Jean-Claude Germain

Louise H. Forsyth

1 Parts of Les Faux Brillants first appeared in Mémoires de la Société royale du Canada (1882-83), pp. 21-38, others in La Revue canadienne juillet-décembre 1884. It was first published in its entirety by Prendergast et Cie, Montréal, 1885. For further information on the plays of Marchand, see EDOUARD G. RINFRET, Le Théâtre canadien d’expression française, Montreal: Leméac, 1977, tome 3, pp 44-47; Dictionnaire des oeuvres littéraires du Québec, sous la direction de Maurice Lemire Montréal: Fides, 1978, tome 1; FÉLIX-GABRIEL MARCHAND, Mélanges poétiques et littéraires, préface A.-D. DeCelles Montreal: C.C. Beauchemin et Fils, 1899.
Return to article

2 JEAN-CLAUDE GERMAIN, Les Faux Brillants de Félix-Gabriel Marchand, paraphrase
Montreal: VLB Editeur,1977
Return to article

3 'Théâtre/Histoire,' Jean-Claude Germain in conversation with Gilbert David and Francine Noël, Jeu. Cahiers de théâtre, 13 (automne 1979), p 14
Return to article

4 For biographical information on Félix-Gabriel Marchand see LIONEL FORTIN, Félix-Gabriel Marchand St-Jean sur Richelieu: Ed. Mille Roches, 1979; L.-O. DAVID, Souvenirs et biographies (1870-1910) Montreal: Librairie Beauchemin,1911; JEAN-JACQUES LEFEBVRE, Félix-Gabriel Marchand (1832-1900) Montréal, 1978 - This is an offprint taken out of La Revue du notariat (janvier-février 1978); RÉGINALD HAMEL, JOHN HARE, PAUL WYCZYNSKI, Dictionnaire pratique des auteurs québécois Montréal: Fides, 1976, pp 478-479. Marchand and his wife Josephte-Herzélie had eleven children, several of whom had distinguished careers. A son, Gabriel, was a journalist, lawyer, politician and minor playwright. A daughter, who used the pseudonym Josette was also a successful journalist, who founded the first feminine periodical Le Coin du feu in 1892. As a feminist, she was Vice-President of both the National Council of Women and the Woman's Canadian Club in the late nineteenth century. She was the first Canadian woman named Officier d'Académie by the French government. In 1900 she was an official Commissioner named by the Canadian government to the International Women's Congress held in Paris.
Return to article

5 CLAUDETTE SUZANNE TRUDEAU has recently suggested in her doctoral dissertation ‘Le
Théâtre canadien-français, 1867-1914. Historique, dramaturgie, idéologie', University of Toronto,
1980, that Les Faux Brillants was strongly influenced by Emile Augier's L’Aventurière (The première took place at the Comédie française in 1848). I am grateful to Trudeau for having drawn my attention to the similarity between the two plays. However, I can see little resemblance between the two in language, structure and characterization, although the two plots follow somewhat similar paths.
Return to article

6 For information on the life and career of Jean-Claude Germain, a full bibliography, as well as
discussions on his ideas about theatre, see the issue of Jeu entirely devoted to him: Jeu. Cahiers de
théâtre 13 automne 1979
Return to article

7 'Un Théâtre de liberté,' Jeu 13, p 79
Return to article

8 See DAVID M. HAYNE, 'Le Théâtre de Joseph Quesnel,' Le Théâtre canadien-français. Archives des Lettres canadiennes, V Montreal: Fides, 1976, pp 109-117. Colas et Colinette was first performed by the Théâtre de Société in 1790, published in 1808 Québec: John Neilson.
L’Anglomanie was probably written in 1803, but I do not believe any indication has yet been found of its having been performed at that time.
Return to article

9 For background information on cultural history and ideological currents see: JEAN LAFLAMME & RÉMI TOURANGEAU, L'Eglise et le théâtre au Québec Montréal: Fides, 1979; PAUL-ANDRÉ LINTEAU, RENÉ DUROCHER & JEAN-CLAUDE ROBERT, Histoire du Québec contemporain. De la Confédération à la crise (1867-1929) Montreal: Boréal Express, 1979; DENIS MONIÈRE, Le Développement des idéologies au Québec. Des Origines à nos jours Montreal: Québec/Amérique, 1977.
Return to article

10 'Graves avertissements donnés aux fidèles par Mgr des Trois-Rivières à l’occasion des
représentations de la Compagnie d'Opéra Français, le 19 et le 20 du courant,' Le Journal des Trois-Rivières XVI 54 (29 nov. 1880), p 4.
Return to article

11 Le Canadien 27 déc. 1880. Cited in JOHN E. HARE, 'Panorama des spectacles au Québec: De la Conquête au XXe siècle,' Le Théâtre canadien-français. Archives des Lettres canadiennes V, p 85.
Return to article

12 The Dime Museums were a form of popular entertainment in which ‘music alternates with
acrobatics and theatre with juggling acts.' The first of these in Montreal was located in a tent on the
south-west corner of University and Sainte-Catherine Streets. See E.-B. MASSICOTTE, 'Les
Théâtres et les lieux d'amusement à Montréal pendant le XIXe siècle,' L’Annuaire théâtral, ed.
Georges Robert Montréal, 1908-1909, p 95.
Return to article

13 GEORGES BELLERIVE, Nos Auteurs dramatiques, anciens et contemporains, Répertoire analytique (s.1., s.é., 1933), p 141.
Return to article

14 Thus, Sarah Bernhardt's first tour in 1880 had to take place in an English theatre, Her Majesty's.
Return to article

15 For detailed information on Les Soirées de famille and a full calendar program, see GERMAIN BEAULIEU, 'Soirées de famille,' L’Annuaire théâtral, pp 58-65.
Return to article

16 'Notes d'art,' Les Débats, 1, 12 (18 février 1900)
Return to article

17 'Notes d'art,' Les Débats, 1, 42 (16 sept. 1900)
Return to article

18 In addition to the newspapers of the period, additional information can be found in ROBERT
PRÉVOST, Que Sont-ils devenus? Montreal: Ed. Princeps, 1939; CRISPIN, 'Le Théâtre National,' L’Annuaire théâtral (along with some very good photographs), pp 10- 16.
Return to article

19 PALMIERI, Mes Souvenirs de théâtre Montréal: Ed. de l’Etoile, 1944.
Return to article

20 See CRISPIN, p 11
Return to article

21 Les Faux Brillants de Félix-Gabriel Marchand, paraphrase, p 167. Since Germain has done considerable research into Marchand and Les Faux Brillants, he is probably aware that this is not the company which first produced the play. He seems to be making this dedication to those who filled the theatrical function with great success in difficult circumstances and who, thereby, created a social and cultural climate which was propitious for the amateur production which took place at the
Monument National. I have included the name of Blanche de la Sablonnière in the list, even though
her name does not appear on page 167. She was the outstanding comédienne of the Théâtre National company and was Quebec's first professional actress. She began her career in the 1880s. Jean-Claude Germain paid tribute to Blanche de la Sablonnière and Madame Albani in Les Hauts et les bas dla vie d’une diva: Sarah Ménard par eux-mêmes. Une Monologuerie bouffe Montréal: VLB, 1976. This latter is a superb play in which, as in his Les Faux Brillants, the echoes of Quebec's theatrical past are strong and imaginatively evoked.
Return to article

22 HENRION, 'Théâtre,' Le Taon 7 (janvier 1908), p 12
Return to article

23 'Théâtre/Histoire,' Jeu 13, p 29
Return to article

24 COLOMBINE (pseudonym of EVA CIRCÉ-CÔTÉ), 'Une Mère dénaturée,' L'Annuaire théâtral, p 133
Return to article

25 Ibid, pp 133-134
Return to article

26 La Patrie 4 mars 1905
Return to article

27 Les Faux Brillants de Félix-Gabriel Marchand, paraphrase, p 8
Return to article

28 See DENIS ST-JACQUES, 'A Propos de vieux Faux Brillants de F.-G. Marchand remis à neuf par Jean-Claude Germain,' Les Lettres québécoises, 9 (fév. 1978), pp 21-23, a generally good and informative review, which nevertheless states that ‘l’ennuyeux ragoût de Félix-Gabriel Marchand reste fade, quelque assaisonnement qu'on y mette.' For an interesting review of the performance of the play and Germain's remarks about it, see "André Dionne a rencontré Jean-Claude Germain â l’occasion de la re-création des Faux Brillants de Félix-Gabriel Marchand," Les Lettres québécoises 7 (août-septembre 1977), pp 24-26.
Return to article

29 Canadian theatre historians will all welcome the recent publication Of GRATIEN GÉLINAS, Les Fridolinades, 1945 et 1946 Montréal: Quinze, 1980.
Return to article