A life well-explored

Playwright Michel Tremblay is one of Canada’s iconic ambassadors of francophone culture. And once again, Walterdale Playhouse presents his most produced and translated play.

Directed by Mary Jane Kreisel, Albertine in Five Times is a powerful exploration of a woman’s life. It opens tonight and runs until Saturday, Feb. 18.

Tremblay, an avowed separatist who eschewed conformity, wrote the play in 1984. He constructed the life of Albertine during five distinct periods of her life performed by five different actresses. Played in 10-year intervals they range from the brink of adulthood to the fragility of old age.

“Many people equate the play as a symbol of Quebec, its history and the different phases it went through. Most people think he’s making a statement about Quebec,” says former St. Albert resident Catherine Wenschlag, the play’s stage manager.

Albertine, a widow with two children, has been shafted in life. Without a husband to navigate the challenging terrain, she has been alone to raise a mentally-challenged son and a precocious, often difficult daughter.

A warm, complicated woman, Albertine carries a lot of rage throughout her life and it affects her every decision. But in her 70s she realizes that she wants to live the rest of her life in peace.

Throughout Albertine’s journey, we also meet Madeleine, the stereotypical perfect sister who has married a successful man and raised solidly middle class children, says Wenschlag.

As the audience meets Albertine in the various stages of life, the women intersect time and space talking, often challenging each other’s memories.

One of Kreisal’s big challenges was to make five actresses meld as one character. The answer was to introduce movement coach Ainsley Hillyard.

“Now they keep their feet in the same position, cross their legs in the same position and hold their hands in the same position. They look like mirror images of each other,” Wenschlag says.

Wenschlag adds that the theme is one of feeling trapped, of being caged, of being controlled by circumstances beyond the ability to change. Albertine’s claustrophobic life is accentuated by designer Robert Forrow, who has created a set that hems in her five versions.

Light designer Roy Jackson of Villeneuve complements the dramatic moments using rotating lights, strongly coloured lights and a hazer.

“This play is really about the challenges people go through, how they cope with them and the decisions they make or don’t make.”