Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer

Michel Tremblay, Martin Bowman, Bill Findlay, Martin Bowman, Bill Findlay

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781854594952
• eBook ISBN: 9781780018461
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Canadian Drama
• Index: Literature

A bold, quirky play from the renowned Quebecois writer, translated into a robust and earthy Scots.

On six moonlit Montreal balconies on a sultry summer's evening, eleven people tell their stories of love. Isabelle and Yannick are alive and ecstatic with the thrill of first love. Jeannine and Louise are in torment that their love may be dying. Rose and her son, Mathieu, are suspended in silent complicity, fearful of the other's pain. Gaston and his daughter, Mireille, are caught in a trap of need and blame. Yvon and Gérard are bound to one another through longing and guilt. The Widow sits alone with the memory of a perfect love...

Inspired by the discovery of a lost mass by Berlioz, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer dispenses with religion but keeps the ritual to lay its characters bare.

Michel Tremblay's play, Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d'été, was first staged in 1996. This translation, by Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay, was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2000, transferring to the Barbican, London.

I

INTROIT

The facades of two houses somewhere in the Plateau Mont-Royal [in Montreal]. It is a full moon in the month of August; the weather is hot, humid, heavy. (Sketch: Michel Tremblay.)

Slowly, THE ELEVEN CHARACTERS come out on to the balconies.

THE WIDOW (ground floor right) sits on a rocking chair; ROSE (second floor left) sits on a chair which her son MATHIEU carries out.

ISABELLE and YANNICK (top floor left) kiss.

YVON (ground floor left) sits down on the steps to the balcony while his friend GÉRARD comes out, leaning on a cane.

MIREILLE (second floor right) sits down on the top step of the external stairs, directly in front of the door to the internal stairs leading to JEANNINE and LOUISE’s flat.

GASTON, her father, stands very erect in the corner of the balcony as if he wanted to rule the whole neighbourhood. GASTON has lost both his forearms in a work accident.

JEANNINE and LOUISE (top floor right) are leaning on the wooden railing of their balcony. Their shoulders are touching, but they are not looking at each other.

Nobody speaks.

They seem to be waiting for something.

The silence before the ceremony must be heavy, almost oppressive.

II

KYRIE

lento

THE ELEVEN CHARACTERS (in unison, very precisely). My God. My God. My God. It’s lovely. My God, it’s lovely.

THE WIDOW. It’s that

[lovely.

ROSE. It is . . . ]

it’s that . . .

[lovely.

JEANNINE and LOUISE. It is . . . ]

it’s so lovely!

ROSE. No a single cloud . . .

THE WIDOW. Hardly a braith ae air . . .

LOUISE. It’s close . . . I like it when it’s close . . .

JEANNINE. It’s stifling . . . the word is stifling.

LOUISE. If you say so . . . But I like it when it’s stifling.

Silence.

ISABELLE. Hey, look at that.

THE OTHER CHARACTERS. My God.

ISABELLE. That’s a weird light.

THE WIDOW. Wid make ye feel ye waantit tae . . .

THE WIDOW, JEANNINE, LOUISE. . . . sleep outside.

ISABELLE. It goat dark aw ae a sudden, ye couldnae see nothin, and then . . .

THE ELEVEN CHARACTERS. My God.

ISABELLE. . . . it’s turnin pure white.

LOUISE. I’d like it to be like this all year . . .

Silence.

THE WIDOW. Sometimes we done that, me’n George, before . . .

JEANNINE. Set up a hammock . . .

LOUISE. . . . like we did

[before . . .

THE WIDOW. . . . before. . . . ]

he passed away . . .

[ . . . we’d settle wirsels oan the back-balcony

JEANNINE, LOUISE. . . . we’d set up a hammock here, hang blankets . . . ]

THE WIDOW, JEANNINE, LOUISE . . . so’s the neighbours couldn’t see us . . . [WIDOW says ‘couldnae’.]

LOUISE. . . . then we slept as we swayed.

ROSE. We’d be there thegither aw night long.

[THE WIDOW, JEANNINE, LOUISE We were so happy.

ROSE. We’d be so happy.]

[JEANNINE, LOUISE. The two of us.

THE WIDOW, ROSE. The two ae us.]

LOUISE. Weren’t we? Weren’t we?

Silence.

YANNICK. It’s the moon comin! It’s the moon comin! That’s how it’s white like this.

ISABELLE, YANNICK, JEANNINE, LOUISE, ROSE, THE WIDOW. My God.

MATHIEU, GASTON, MIREILLE, YVON, GÉRARD. My God.

Silence.

GÉRARD. It’s really lovely, but this heat . . .

YVON. No be possible, eh no?

GÉRARD. No. No. Up till last year it woulda been possible, but now . . .

ISABELLE, YANNICK. No be long till it’s oot.

THE WIDOW. An auld mattress . . .

[ISABELLE, YANNICK. That’s how it’s white like this.

THE WIDOW. That’s how the mood jist took us . . . ]

[ISABELLE, YANNICK. No be long till it’s oot.

THE WIDOW. That’s how the mood jist took us . . . ]

GÉRARD. It’s really, really lovely . . .

[YVON. Ah know . . .

MIREILLE. Ye need somethin?]

[GÉRARD. No, you don’t know.

GASTON. No, ah need nothin.]

THE WIDOW, JEANNINE, LOUISE. We slept like logs.

THE WIDOW. It seems no that long ago.

Silence.

MATHIEU. To think I was doin that no long ago . . . Fool that I was . . .

THE ELEVEN CHARACTERS (quietly). My God.

MATHIEU. Sleepin . . . like that . . . outside.

ROSE. Don’t think aboot that . . .

[YANNICK. Know whit we should dae?

ROSE. Don’t think aboot that . . .]

[ISABELLE. Ah seen this comin, you! Ah seen it comin since we wir eatin . . .

YANNICK. We should drag the mattress oot oantae the balcony . . .

THE WIDOW, JEANNINE, LOUISE. We never noticed the night passing.

ROSE. It’s too lovely a night tae be thinkin aboot things like that.

MATHIEU. Aye . . . forget everythin . . . then sleep.

MIREILLE. Ye shair ye need nothin?

YVON. Ye like me tae bring oot a chair?]

[GASTON, GÉRARD No, ah need nothin.

ISABELLE. Ah seen you comin on tae me, gantin fur it . . .

YANNICK. We could hing up blankets. Tae stoap the neighbours seein us . . .

JEANNINE, LOUISE (not together. LOUISE begins on JEANNINE’s ‘once’.) I never woke up even once . . .

MATHIEU. Escape intae sleep, forget everythin, wipe it all out . . .

GASTON. Ah need nothin. Ah’m fine as ah am.

GÉRARD. Ah need nothin. Ah’m no a cripple.

THE WIDOW. The haill night ah nivir woke up wance even . . . ]

MATHIEU. Wipe it all out. Once and for all.

THE ELEVEN CHARACTERS (very loud). My God.

THE WIDOW. Have mercy upon me.

[MATHIEU. Have mercy upon me.

THE WIDOW. Ah’m no able tae . . . ]

MATHIEU. I’m not able to . . .

[ISABELLE. You’re no subtle when yir feelin that wey.

YANNICK. You ivir done it in the moonlight?]

[YANNICK. Subtle?

THE WIDOW Ah’m no able tae.

MATHIEU. I’m not able to.]

YANNICK. How wid ah be subtle?

ROSE, YVON. Ah don’t like it when you’re in this mood. Ye sure ah kin do nothin?

[JEANNINE. That’s all in the past.

LOUISE. All finished and done with.]

The following choral lines are given three times.

ISABELLE. But deep doon ah love it when you prowl roond me, comin on tae me, excitin me, excitin me . . .

YANNICK. But deep doon you love it when ah prowl roond ye, sweet-talkin, sweet-talkin . . .

JEANNINE. After twenty-five years we don’t feel like doing those kind of things, sad to say . . .

LOUISE. How is it things like that go away and don’t come back? I don’t understand. I don’t understand . . .

ROSE. Ah know there’s nothin ah kin do, ah’m sorry . . . But ah feel ah’m that helpless . . .

MATHIEU. I can’t go on livin like this . . . I’ve got tae do somethin . . .

GASTON. If ah need somethin, ah’ll let ye know . . . Wait till ah tell ye, will ye! Wait!

MIREILLE. E...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• The Mass
• Characters
• Notes
• Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information