Montréal, Monday, April 28, 2025 — The Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM) and Théâtre ESPACE GO, in collaboration with the members of the Award Development Committee*, are pleased to announce that Rébecca Déraspe has won this year’s Jovette-Marchessault Award, whose sixth edition is dedicated to women playwrights. The award recognizes and showcases the contributions of women artists to the Montréal theatre scene and comes with a $20,000 cash prize, which will be presented to the winner by the Conseil. As a partner of ESPACE GO, Air Transat will award the two other finalists, Annick Lefebvre and Marie-Christine Lê-Huu, a round-trip ticket to Paris.
“It is with immense pride that we present the Prix Jovette-Marchessault to Rébecca Déraspe, a sensitive, lively and prolific author with an impressive career. Her burning need to repair the world, reflected in her writing and echoing the current political climate, reminds us just how much we need the voices of artists like her. The Conseil des arts de Montréal is proud to celebrate her exceptional talent, which makes Quebec and Montreal shine abroad. ”
– Nathalie Maillé, Executive Director
Rébecca Déraspe's quote (translated)
Being chosen for an award that bears the name of a woman determined to keep the voices of her predecessors alive is incredibly moving. I have the dizzying impression that Jovette Marchessault herself is holding my hand, giving me the strength to continue bearing witness to the world. On my shoulders, on my back, in the hours I spend in meandering explorations at my computer, I feel the hands of my contemporaries, who, in awarding me this prize, are giving me the gift of their wonderful and necessary support. Thanks to you, I yearn to say more, to create something new out of things coming undone, to seek the theatre in my own anger, to put myself out there even when the burning of things frightens me, to delve into my own dramatic structures to build as close to the truth as possible. Thanks to you, and with you, I want to continue to resist. Women playwrights, and all women authors, whether they take the stage in Montréal or elsewhere, are masterful, with the courage to write the sound of chaos as they feel it in their bones, in their veins. It is with them that I wish to write. Because between us, we draw a necessary line of force.
RÉBECCA DÉRASPE
With some 20 plays brought to the stage in just over a decade, playwright Rébecca Déraspe is remarkably prolific, with a body of work that has been translated into five languages and continues to rack up the honours. This 2010 graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program was quick to make her mark. In the year following her graduation, Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui premiered her play DEUX ANS DE VOTRE VIE, which went on to win the BMO Financial Group’s playwright award in 2012, highlighting the vibrancy and formal flexibility of her writing.
In recent seasons, the playwright has enjoyed remarkable creative élan. In 2022 alone, seven of her plays were brought to the stage across the country and around the world—a snapshot that illustrates the wide range of registers tackled by the author and speaks to her desire to formally renew herself with every new creation, whether adaptation, comedy, children’s theatre (e.g., FAIRE CRIER LES MURS, a sung show for teenagers), not to mention the revival—following a pandemic-related hiatus—of the poignant work CEUX QUI SONT ÉVAPORÉS, a play that won the prestigious Prix Michel-Tremblay for the best text brought to the stage in 2020, as well as the Prix du meilleur texte dramatique – Montréal, given out by the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre (AQCT).
Déraspe’s works have also gained recognition beyond Québec’s borders. Her choral play LES FILLES DU SAINT-LAURENT (written in collaboration with Annick Lefebvre) premiered in November 2021 at Petit Théâtre de la Colline in Paris. During the same period, FANNY had its first performance in France, at the Comédie de Reims, before opening in the City of Light at Théâtre Ouvert. The work was subsequently presented at Théâtre du Bic and Théâtre du Double Signe in Sherbrooke, in 2024.
As a keen observer who is so fascinated by people that she would have liked to be a psychiatrist, she looks at her fellow human beings with great sensitivity. That sense of curiosity drives her writing, which she perceives as a dialogue, an encounter, and gives her writing its intrinsic humanity. Déraspe digs into the deep-seated wounds and anxieties of her characters with a degree of empathy that still leaves room for ridicule, an approach that allows her to tackle serious, even risky subjects in a light-hearted way. She has a true gift for humour and likes to dance on the line between drama and comedy, a balancing act that, in combination with the pacing of her dialogue, makes her works so engaging. In tune with the times, her subjects are at once intimate and social. Her characters are often confronted with the preconceived models and judgments of those around them.
Déraspe’s body of work is decidedly feminist. To address historical injustices against women, she didn’t hesitate to imagine a genius sister for Shakespeare in JE SUIS WILLIAM, named best show for young audiences in Montréal by the AQCT and awarded the Prix Louise-LaHaye by the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) in 2019. For the 2020-2021 season, the playwright received a Jean-Denis Leduc writing grant from Théâtre de la Manufacture, where she has been author-in-residence since 2018 and is currently developing her play LES GLACES on the highly topical issues of sexual assault and consent. Difficult issues, approached with infinite nuance and great delicacy.
In several of her plays, Déraspe takes a special interest in the themes of motherhood, the maternal role and related issues in contemporary society. It’s an exploration she pursues in an unabashedly bold and free fashion, not afraid to tackle issues considered taboo. This is apparent in NINO, a text that features acerbic exchanges and garnered a special mention from the Gratien-Gélinas awards in 2014, and was then presented in Geneva. The same is true of the hard-hitting confrontation between two friends in GAMÈTES, a play that won the Prix du meilleur texte dramatique – Montréal for the best dramatic text from the AQCT in 2017. It was also this aspect of the female condition—the care of children—that the author examined in her 2019 version of MAISON DE POUPÉE, an update of Henrik Ibsen’s famous play.
In addition to her many original plays, Déraspe is also known for the number of adaptations she has produced over her career. Sophie Cadieux turned to Déraspe to credibly transpose a monologue from France’s Noémie de Lattre for the Québec context, which became FÉMINISTE POUR HOMME – GUIDE DE SURVIE POUR TOUS(TES). The author has also left her mark on a number of great classical texts, including Shakespeare’s LA NUIT DES ROIS [Twelfth Night], translated and adapted in collaboration with director Frédéric Bélanger for Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, ROMÉO ET JULIETTE, and Sophocles’ ANTIGONE (a collective adaptation), both for Le Théâtre du Trident in Québec City. Over the past year, she has also taken on two very different transpositions for the stage: MEMBRANE, for which director Cédric Delorme-Bouchard called on Déraspe’s talents to add a human touch to Taiwanese author Chi Ta-wei’s science-fiction tale, and more recently, her stage version of Jane Austen’s classic ORGUEIL ET PRÉJUGÉS [Pride and Prejudice], presented at Théâtre Denise-Pelletier by Frédéric Bélanger. Déraspe’s highly acclaimed adaptation highlights the modernity of the 19th-century protagonist.
On top of all that, the author’s new creation, JANETTE, directed by Jean-Simon Traversy, is having its grand premiere this spring. It’s no surprise that Compagnie Jean Duceppe chose her to write this play “in conversation with” Janette Bertrand. The resulting work traces the icon’s career and changes in the status of women in Québec.
In short, the scope of Rébecca Déraspe’s talents never ceases to amaze!
*Members of the Jovette-Marchessault Award Development Committee: Nahka Bertrand, Micheline Chevrier, Margarita Herrera-Dominguez, Lior Maharjan and Marie-Eve Milot
This Conseil des arts de Montréal award was named after Jovette Marchessault in tribute to a great “tuner of souls” whose works reflect a desire to bring women’s culture out of the shadows, reshape history and forge a collective memory that allows women to be role models for everyone. The 2026 edition of the Jovette-Marchessault Award will focus on women directors. The call for nominations will open in fall 2025.
ABOUT THE CONSEIL DES ARTS DE MONTRÉAL
Through various forms of assistance, the Conseil des arts de Montréal identifies, supports and recognizes artistic innovation and creative expression in all their diversity with the aim of promoting Montréal’s artists, producers and presenters. Since 1956, the Conseil has played a unique role as a catalyst for this artistic ecosystem, helping make Montréal one of the world’s great cultural metropolises, known here and abroad for its artistic vitality.
ABOUT THÉÂTRE ESPACE GO
Ever since it was founded in 1979, Théâtre ESPACE GO has been dedicated to exploring the imaginations of women artists and to the ongoing development of theatre. This mission has given the company a unique position in North America and made it a role model on the world stage.
SOURCE
Luc Chauvette
Communications and Marketing Director
Théâtre ESPACE GO
lucchauvette@espacego.com
