David Paquet
By Stanislav Tsybrukh
Quebecois playwright David Paquet, is an award-winning writer, translator, adapter, and poet. his debut play Porc-épic won the 2010 Governor General's Award for French-language drama and the Prix Michel-Tremblay. He won a second Governor General's Award for drama in 2022 for Le Poids des Fourmis. These works, along with his other plays 2h14, Appels Entrants Illimités, Les Grands-Mères Mortes (co-writer), Le Brasier, Histoires à Plumes et à Poils (co-writer), Le Soulier, and Chansons pour le Musée (co-writer) have been produced in more than 12 countries throughout Europe and North America. Additionally, Paquet translated Hannah Moscovitch’s In This World into French and created an adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening. Several of his works, including Histoires à Plumes et à Poils, 2h14, Appels Entrants Illimités, and Les Grands-Mères Mortes, were written specifically for youth and teens, and he has twice won the Quebec Critic’s Choice Awards for Best Play for Young Audiences.
Beyond writing for the stage, Paquet is interested in stories told in a variety of literary and performance forms, including spoken word, and he has written and performed two solo shows of stand-up poetry, Papiers Mâchés and Le Voilier (Manifeste du Fragile).
Paquet's works are characterized by the bizarre and unexpected. He often begins with surrealist images and phrases, evoking the psychological landscapes of his characters. He wrote his play The Shoe during a writing residency at a psychiatric hospital and was inspired by those fighting invisible wars. An equally surreal take on trauma, Wildfire (Le Brasier) is the winner of the 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play. In his programme note, Paquet wrote: “Believing that we are detached from others… makes us short-sighted. And when we collectively lose our vision, we stumble and grope our way until we can’t move at all.”
Paquet teaches playwriting and serves as a dramaturg for the National Theatre School of Canada, the Centre des Auteurs Dramatiques, and the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique de Montréal. He graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada's playwriting program in 2006 and now lives in Montreal.
Photo of David Paquet by Guillaume Boucher
Published December 2024