Balconville

by David Fennario

Balconville is Canada's first bilingual play. Three families and Thibault, the neighbourhood rubbie, sit on their balconies in the heat of a Montreal summer. It is election time and Gaétan Bolduc is running for re-election for the Liberals. His broadcast truck roams the streets making election promises in English and in French, and playing the music of Elvis Presley. The English and the French-Canadian working class take on the Establishment in this award-winning play.

Cast of 3 women and 6 men.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Read For School, Canada

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

David William Fennario, (born David Wiper) is a Canadian playwright best known for Balconville (1979), his bilingual dramatization of life in working-class Montreal, for which he won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award. A committed Marxist, Fennario was a candidate for the Union des forces progressistes in 2003 and for Québec solidaire in 2007. He has been the subject of two National Film Board of Canada documentaries, David Fennario's Banana Boots and Fennario: His World On Stage.

His pen name, "Fennario," given to him by a former girlfriend, is from a Bob Dylan song, Pretty Peggy-O.

Reviews

[Sukhpreet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should probably read this again so I can be sure I didn't miss anything in the French sections. Always nice to have CanCon that is actually good! What a gift.

[Noemi · Rating 2 out of 5]

First français-anglais Play in Canada. I guess you had to be there at the time, because reading it like this today, it simply wasn't good. Everything was flat, confusing and I HATED how women were depicted/treated. The relationship between Anglo and Franco people had absolutely no subtitles. It was easy cliches with no dept. Very disappointing.

[Eden]

I think this one will grow on me with time. The ending was goofy but in sort of an endearing way. It's very cemented in the 70's but the fire motif can obviously apply to our contemporary moment

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, interesting for anyone that is interested in the Quebec/Canada debate...and is bilingual.

[Carolane Vallée · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure I liked it, but I think I may have fallen in love with its authencity and it's desire to show the world what was the reality of Montreal for anglophones and francophones.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a bit on the nose to illustrate rising tensions and political turmoil through a series of fires over the course of an abnormally hot summer.