BY COLE RIVARD
Le Theatre du Nouvel-Ontario is celebrating its 35th year of
bringing critically acclaimed performance art to
French-speaking audiences. The 2006-2007 season of the TNO will
be packed with new plays and past favourites.
"The angle we are taking this year is that we want everyone
to come," says Genevieve Pineault, TNO's artistic director. "We
are getting our audience to bring people with them who don't
normally go to performances. We are hoping to show people the
emotion and the creativity we put behind each of our
performances."
She is excited about the production of Iphigenie en
Trichromie.
Iphigenie en Trichromie takes place in ancient Greece and
tells the tale of the fall of Troy. It begins at the end of the
story and weaves a plot of love, revenge and political
intrigue. The play will run between Sept. 27-30 and Oct. 4-7.
Ten of the 17 people responsible for producing the play are
Sudbury residents, showing the TNO's commitment to supporting
the local francophone community.
"It's good for us to keep local talent here in Sudbury,"
said Pineault. "I think people in this community will be
surprised at the talent that is available here. It's important
to give talented individuals a lot more opportunity here."
Building off their success in Sudbury in 2003, the
performance couple Corpus will return Jan. 25-27, 2007, with a
performance of A Deux, C'est Mieux! The play follows some of
history's great couples, both fictional and factual, such as
Adam and Eve, Bonnie and Clyde, and Beauty and the Beast. It
acts as both a retrospective and an investigation into the
nature of relationships.
The TNO took part in the recent Le Salon du Livre book
festival. It put on two performances of a play titled La
Librairie or The Library.
"With this play, working with Le Salon du Livre, we wanted
to speak of the passion of books," said Pineault. "I think that
it is a great opportunity for us to reach such a large
audience."
Other productions the TNO are putting together for the
2006-2007 season include the black comedy Apocalypse a
Kamloops, where a man, advised by a muse, must fix his
crumbling family life before a comet destroys the Earth. Due to
overwhelming community response, they will also be putting on a
repeat production of Grace et Gloria, a tale of a terminally
ill woman and her caregiver. 
The TNO also has a history of youth-oriented productions.
Maita, the story of a young girl working in a sweatshop in the
Middle East, received a standing ovation when it first ran five
years ago and is set to repeat history in May 2007.
With such a longstanding history, one would think that the
TNO would be satisfied with the support they've received from
the city they call home but this is not the case.
"The French community in Sudbury is extremely strong," said
Pineault. "The strange thing is, everyone knows how strong the
French community is here but the community itself."
The TNO will be presenting a variety of performances over the upcoming year. For more information or to purchase tickets to any of the events, visit www.letno.ca .
