Province

“The forest’s advance, the animals’ unnatural frenzy, that horrific vision. I’m starting to connect the dots and the big picture is dreadful” – Hide

It’s getting warmer; you can smell the fear in the air. Nature is running amok. Climate change or a much darker, transfiguring force?

Province takes audiences on a thrilling, unsettling journey—one that raises searing questions and offers no easy answers. Set in the dense forests of Quebec, this darkly comic fable belongs to a rich tradition of dystopian art, exposing humanity’s apathy toward environmental collapse and our relentless pursuit of self-interest.

Infused with poetic whimsy and the raw textures of rural life, Province introduces a cast of vibrant characters who find themselves at odds with a new, terrifying reality: nature is fighting back. Once-docile animals have mutated, turning against their human masters with a chilling sense of purpose. Yet, amid the growing ecological chaos, life in Province carries on with absurd normalcy—residents play Wii, film home videos, and remain fixated on beauty and consumerism, oblivious to the world unraveling around them.

Will they wake up before it’s too late, or will they be consumed by the relentless tide of nature reclaiming its own?

Stacey Christodoulou, Artistic Director of The Other Theatre and Lyne Paquette, Artistic Director of Talisman Theatre join forces to bring this exciting new work to the Montreal stage. For Stacey, Province was yet another opportunity to explore the tension between the individual and the collective experience: how everyday acts of kindness and cruelty are reflected in the larger social and political context. For Lyne, who will also design the world of Province, the play marks Talisman Theatre’s fourth commissioned translation of contemporary French plays into English and the third collaboration with translator Nadine Desrochers (Billy: The Days of Howling, The Medea Effect, The Flood Thereafter). The English translation of the play has been read both in Montreal and in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“Among the murmur of the thistle and nettle, you can hear the dribble of drool over fangs. Eyes closed, you can almost see the manufactured and mutant shapes of the unseen.”– Buddy