L'auteur - The author
Le site web officiel d'Annie PROULX.The official web site of E. Annie PROULX.
L'oeuvre - The work
This story was selected to be in "The O. Henry Awards Prize Stories 1999" and "The Best American Short Stories 1999".
An article
about this book ;
and another one ;
and another one from the
New York Times.
This show
was originally produced at the
Magic Theatre (San Francisco)
in Summer of 2000, with set design by Tomomi Iitakura and
Lighting Design by Wendy W. Gilmore.
It has already been reviewed
here,
here and
here.
Si vous avez manqué le début ... - If you've missed the beginning ...
«The country appeared as empty ground, big sagebrush, rabbitbrush,
intricate sky, flocks of small birds like packs of cards thrown up
in the air, and a faint track drifting toward the red-walled horizon.
Graves were unmarked, fallen house timbers and corrals burned up in old
campfires. Nothing much but weather and distance, the distance punctuated
once in a while by ranch gates, and to the north the endless murmur and
sunflash of semis rolling along the interstate.
In this vague region the Touheys ranched - old Red, ninety-six years young,
his son Aladdin, Aladdin's wife, Wauneta, their boy, Tyler, object of
Aladdin's hopes, the daughters, Shan and (the family embarrassment) Ottaline.
...»
Le résumé - The summary
‘The Bunchgrass Edge of the World’ est une saga familiale, un monde où se côtoient amour et vengeance, désir et endurance. La scène se passe dans les plaines du Wyoming, ces plaines désertes du ‘Far West’ balayées par le vent, où ne sévissent que les éléments et l'espace. Trois générations de la famille Touhey vivent sur un ranch - Old Red, le patriarche, Aladdin, son fils avec sa désespérance de ‘rancher’ pour qui le ‘happy end’ n'existe pas, Wauneta, la femme d'Aladdin, et leurs trois enfants : Shan et Tyler, qui quittent le ranch pour les attraits de Las Vegas, et Ottaline, la honte de la famille, bâtie comme une énorme cuve à propane. Ottaline reste au foyer, et en attendant que quelqu'un vienne lui changer la vie, fait passer le temps en écoutant des conversations sur portables qu'elle capte dans sa chambre sur sa CB. Jusqu'au jour où elle rencontre un vieux tracteur 4030 John Deere rouillé … et Ottaline s'ouvre à l'amour. ‘The Bunchgrass Edge of the World’ écrit dans le style descriptif et original de Annie Proulx, figure dans ‘Close Range’, un recueil de nouvelles du Wyoming, pays où l'auteur a élu domicile. ‘Word for Word’, troupe de théâtre professionnelle, fait vivre ‘Bunchgrass’ sur scène avec simplicité et élégance. La mission que s’est assignée cette troupe est de jouer de courtes œuvres de fiction ‘mot pour mot’ (d’où le nom !), et de créer des mises en scène inventives, tout en respectant les intentions de l’auteur. |
‘The Bunchgrass Edge of the World’ is a family saga of love and revenge, longing and endurance. The story is set in the Wyoming plains - typical ‘cowboy country’, desolate, windswept, filled with "nothing much but weather and distance". Three generations of the Touhey family live on a ranch - Old Red (the patriarch), his son Aladdin ("he had the rancher's expectation of disaster, never believed in happy endings"), Wauneta (Aladdin's wife), and their three children : Shan and Tyler who leave the ranch for the pleasures of Las Vegas, and Ottaline ("the family embarrassment" built like "a hundred-gallon propane tank") who stays on at home waiting for someone to change her life and whiling away the time listening to cell-phone conversations on her bedroom CB radio. Until one day an encounter with a rusty old John Deere 4030 tractor opens Ottaline to love. ‘The Bunchgrass Edge of the World’, written in Annie Proulx's idiosyncratic, descriptive style, is published in ‘Close Range’, a volume of short stories set in Wyoming, where the author now lives. It is brought to life with simple and elegant theatricality by ‘Word for Word’, a professional theatre company whose mission is to perform short works of fiction in their entirety, preserving the author’s voice and honoring his/her intent with exciting visuals and inventive staging. V.E.D. |
La troupe - The Company
The official web site of Word for Word .
Word For Word: 1999 Best Ensemble Award from Bay Area Critics Circle.
Word for Word: 1998 Special Achievement Award from Bay Area Critics Circle.
Margo Hall: 1998 Black Box Award for Direction, Word for Word's Joy Ride.
(also "Friend of My Youth" Director)
Word for Word is a professional theatre company that stages short stories, performing every word the author has written. Their goals are to excite audiences about the written word, to create new ones for the theatre, and to share the world's diverse cultures and stories. As one of our company members says: "It's like being read to. While it's fully literary in content, it's completely theatrical in form."
They bring literature to life !
Director : Sandra Langsner Crews
Assistant Director : Nancy Shelby
Founders and Artistic Directors : Susan Harloe & JoAnne Winter.
- Paul FINOCCHIARO ...... Aladdin, Ensemble
- Susan HARLOE .......... Wauneta, Ensemble
- Amy KOSSOW ............ Ottaline
- Eryka RAINES .......... Shan, Ensemble
- Dennis LUDLOW ......... Old Red, Ensemble
- Brian Keith RUSSELL ... Tyler, Tractor, Flyby, Ensemble
Stage Manager : David A. YOUNG
Sound Design : Byron CREWS
Costume Design : Valera COBLE
Prop Design, Production Assistant : Rachel YOUNG
Leur tour de France
est financé par la Florence Gould Foundation et Air France pour le
transport.
This production is funded by the Florence Gould Foundation; travel support by Air France.
Dernière mise à jour :
