SOURCE: "Michel Tremblay's Seduction of the 'Other Solitude,'" in Canadian Drama, Fall, 1976, pp. 217-23.

In the following essay, McQuaid explains Tremblay's success in English Canada by examining the social concerns, "highly" theatrical nature, and indigenous québécois qualities of his plays.

In 1970, anglophone Canadians suddenly learned that the québécois were serious about conserving their heritage and that meant more than the old sections of Montréal and Québec city. Two years later, the Tarragon theatre produced A Toi Pour Toujours, ta Marie-Lou, to be followed by Hosanna and Les Belles Soeurs in 1974. We all read the critics and noted that Tremblay was daring to write in "joual", so we sought out the French scripts, if we considered ourselves competent in the language. However, most of us were not familiar enough with a Montréal accent to comprehend Tremblay's notation of the celebrated "joual...