Stupeur Et Tremblements

From February 17 to 21 - 8:00pm
Théâtre la 16ème
Studio 16
1555 7th ave. west

Amélie, a young Belgian woman having grown up in Japan, comes back to her adopted country in the hopes of integrating completely into Japanese culture. Hired by the Yuminoto firm as a translator, she rapidly discovers, at her own expense, the implacable rigidity of the manager, as well as the codes of conduct that govern social life in the land of the rising sun. From clumsiness to errors, she begins, like in a bad dream, an inexorable descent down the levels of hierarchy. She will fail at the rank of toilet supervisor, the rank of the “nothing”, a job apparently still too good for her!

Gracefully staged by Moroccan born artist Layla Metssitane, this minor literary miracle, winner of the Grand Prize of the Académie Française in 1999, exposes the new despotisms and modern chauvinism, with a lively sense of humour that is found in each sentence.

"The spirit of the satire and the masochism that emanates from the script
is rendered with unbelievable charm by an artist with a deft hand."

— L’Humanité, France

Presented with l’Alliance Française de Vancouver
Production: La Compagnie Théâtre des Hommes
Script: Amélie Nothomb (Albin Michel Editions)
Adaptation: Layla Metssitane
Stage Direction and Performance: Layla Metssitane
English Translation: Layla Metssitane and Emmanuel Orain
The play was produced with the support from la Société littéraire de La Poste,
France Télécom, La Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, Shiseido and from Yohji Yamamoto.

Soutenu par Ici Radio-Canada