Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Inès Pérée et Inat Tendu
Surrealist drama by Réjean Ducharme, premiered at the Festival de Ste-Agathe in 1968, directed by Yvan Canuel. Revived at the Nouvelle Compagnie Theatrale / Theatre Denise-Pelletier in 1976, at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in 1991 and at Théâtre du Trident in 1999.
The title, the names of the two central characters, is also a pun: Unhoped-For and Unexpected. Two child-adults (or mentally-handicapped adolescents), search the world for a little hospitality. They don't find it at a veterinarian's (head of a hospital for cats and dogs), nor at a kleptomaniacal psychiatrist's, nor at Sister Saint-New-York-des-ronds-d'eau's (St. New-York-of-the-puddles), nor at Aidez-moi Lussier Voucru's (Help-me Had-you-believed-me), nor at Pierre-Pierre Pierre's, who threatens them with a revolver. Having travelled this deliriously Absurdist world, they finish by using up their life-force.
The text is filled with verbal flights of fantasy and yet, too, a disarming innocence that goes beyond childlike and into the gently lyrical.
Commentary by Gaetan Charlebois. Additional information provided by Yannick Legault.
Last updated 2019-09-05
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