Quebec Scene

ARGGL! ~ Welcome to... (a city where you are the tourist)

Written by Olivier Choinière
Sound design by Jean-Sébastien Durocher
Artistic advisors: Esther Beauchemin and Robert Bellefleur
Created by ARGGL!
Commissioned by Quebec Scene
Presented in association with Théâtre de la Vieille 17

You’re invited on an urban adventure, an audioguided tour designed for one person at a time. As you roam the streets, the pre-recorded human voice describes not the city you see before you, but the ghosts and memories of its past, its dreams and nightmares. Specializing in “recreo-tourism, Montreal-based ARGGL! makes you the spect-actor: the star of the moment, the participant in an unconventional journey scripted by Olivier Choinière.

Presented in English and French.
18:30 to 21:40 (running time 1 hr 15 minutes)

Olivier Choinière

Since graduating from the playwriting program of the National Theatre School of Canada in 1996, Olivier Choinière has written over a dozen scripts including Le bain des raines (nominated for a Governor General’s Award and read at Théâtre Ouvert, Paris in 1998); Les trains ou J'entends grincer le vent sur les échangeurs d'air; La légende du Manuel sacré; Autodafé; bûcher historique en cinq actes; and Le soldat de bois. In 2001 he was a co-recipient of an award from the new Millennium Arts Fund from the Canada Council for the Arts. Choinière is also a translator. His translations include High Life by Lee Macdougall (nominated for ‘Best Translation’ at the "Soirée des Masques" in Montreal in 2006), Crestfall (awarded ‘Best Translation’ at the "Soirée des Masques"), Howie the Rookie by Mark O’Rowe (nominated for ‘Best Translation’), and The Shape of a Girl by Joan MacLeod. Choinière also creates site-specific theatre with his company AGRRL! (loosely translated as ‘Very Very Liberating Repetitive Activity!’) Among other projects he has produced a theatrical walking tour with La Licorne in 2005 called Bienvenue à (une ville dont vous êtes le touriste), translated into English by Maureen LaBonté. (CEAD)