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Being At Home With Claude

Drama in French in one long act by René-Daniel Dubois that premiered at Théâtre de Quat'Sous, Montreal, November 13, 1985, directed by Daniel Roussel, with set and costumes by Michel Crête and lights by Claude Accolas. The premiere featured Lothaire Bluteau, Guy Thauvette, Robert Lalonde and André Thérien. It subsequently toured world-wide, and produced in London's West End. In 1987, it was revived at Théâtre du Rideau Vert with Guy Nadon and Marc Béland, directed by the author. It was again revived in November, 2000, at Espace Go, directed by the author. Being At Home With Claude was produced as a film in 1992 directed by Jean Beaudin and starring Roy Dupuis and Jacques Godin. The play was translated into English under the same title by Linda Gaboriau.

The time of the play is 1967 - during Expo. This chamber piece which, significantly, takes place in a judge's office, sets out to answer the question, "Can you kill when you love too much?" It is a simple yet highly theatrical work which has a male prostitute brutally interrogated about the murder which he says he committed. In a long, moving monologue we learn that the hustler's identity was entwined with the man he killed...and loved. The play is erotic in an utterly troubling way.

Critical and popular reaction was exceptionally positive. Said Robert Lévesque of Le Devoir, "[Dubois] proves...that he is not only the most aesthetic of our theatrical writers - which makes his genius equal to Michel Tremblay's - but in a different sense, that he is also the most visceral of our dramatic poets."

Readings: René-Daniel Dubois. Being at Home With Claude. Montreal: Leméac, 1986. Montreal.

Commentary by Gaetan Charlebois

Last updated 2022-01-19