Michel Tremblay is the first Canadian playwright to have won international recognition. His plays have been translated into many languages and performed successfully on three continents. Starting from the tradition of social-psychological drama begun by Gratien Gélinas and Marcel Dubé, Tremblay has transcended the work of his predecessors, achieving a successful synthesis between realism and theatricalism in style, the regional and the universal in theme, naturalism and lyricism in dramatic idiom. Within Quebec his work is frequently classified as "theatre of liberation" and given political significance due to his introduction of the Montreal working-class French joual as a stage idiom, as well as to his merciless naturalism and the political parables that underlie many of his plays. Viewed from a wider perspective, Tremblay's work impresses particularly because of its memorable characters, its sophisticated methods of dramatic composition, and the richness and complexity of its levels...