The Charge of the Expormidable Moose

Claude Gauvreau, who died in 1971, was and is a seminal figure in Quebec’s literature. This play is one of his most powerful expressions of alienation and systematic brutality, set in a futuristic, fantastic, but vaguely institutional world. The protagonist — a poet, plagiarized and mocked by those around him — mourns the death of a woman friend. His associates torture him psychologically and physically and finally hand him over to a sadistic brute. He kills the brute, and the others turn on him. He dies, reciting Gauvreau – like surreal verse. This is not what the fans of Gratien Gelinas were used to seeing; it’s not what the fans of Tremblay are now used to. Yet there have been successful revivals of this play since 1989, playing to full houses in Montreal.