Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Maillet, Antonine
Playwright, translator, novelist, poet, and teacher, Antonine Maillet was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, May 10, 1929; died in Montreal, February 17, 2025 at the age of 95. She studied at the University of Moncton (B.A., M.A.), Université de Montréal, and at Laval University (Ph.D. 1970) in Quebec City. She wrote fifty novels, including Pélagie-La-Charettee (1979), which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt, catapulting her into international celebrity. She is now best known for her Acadian monologue La Sagouine which enjoyed three thousand productions over forty years in English and French, most of which were enacted by Viola Léger.
Maillet was a Companion of the Order of Canada, and the recipient of thirty honorary doctorates. In 2021, she was named Commander of the Legion of Honour. She was uniquely honoured by the city of Outremont, Quebec, which named the street where she lived after her.
Her plays are simple in structure but rich and surprising in language. The characters are rural-savvy and reflect the accumulated wisdom and humour of four centuries of difficult Acadian life. They include: Les Crasseux (Compagnie Jean-Duceppe, 1974), La Contrebandière (Théâtre du Rideau Vert, 1974), Évangeline Deusse (Rideau Vert, 1976), Gapi (Rideau Vert, 1976), La veuve enragée (Rideau Vert, 1977), Le Bourgeois gentleman (Rideau Vert, 1978), Emmanuel à Joseph à Davit (Rideau Vert, 1979), La Joyeuse criée (Rideau Vert, 1982), Garrochés en paradis (Rideau Vert, 1986), Margot la folle (Rideau Vert, 1987); Le Tintamare (Rideau Vert, 1999).
Translations include: Tom Jones' and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantastiks as Les Fantastiques (Rideau Vert, 1988), Willy Russel's Shirley Valentine as Valentine (Rideau Vert, 1990), Shakespeare's Richard III (Rideau Vert, 1989), Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair as La foire de St-Bartholomé (Rideau Vert, 1994), Hamlet (Rideau Vert, 1999), George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (Rideau Vert, 1999) and David French's Salt-Water Moon as Une Lune d'eau salée (Cercle Molière, 1999).
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois.
Last updated 2025-02-18
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