Theatre Lac-Brome has (TLB) announced its new partnership with Infinitheatre - one of Quebec’s renowned English theatre companies - to bring English theatre productions to Brome Lake, a partnership that will go into 2024.

TLB has a long history of putting on summer plays and providing an equal number of entertainment and cultural opportunities to the English-speaking and French-speaking communities of Brome Lake, according to artistic director of TLB Anne Dubé, but it has recently faced challenges in finding an English theatre company in Quebec that tours with its productions. Dubé says that they've had many requests from people in the community to present plays in English at the theatre.

With this demand in mind, TBL approached Infinithéâtre and they will be working together to better meet the needs of the community and what both groups want to accomplish artistically.

“This is [specifically] to be able to give as much shows to our community, both communities, especially in Lac-Brome. We have a 50/50 percent French-speaking people and [English-speaking people,]” said Dubé. “So it’s important to me to do as much English shows as I do French shows.”

Besides its long history of serving the English-speaking community of Brome Lake and its surrounding areas, TBL is also one of the, if not the only, theatre that provides English language entertainment to the Brome-Missisquoi region, according to Dubé. 

“I’ve worked for other theatres before, I worked for six years in Quebec City and 17 years up North of Montreal, and we didn’t have this challenge as much,” explained Dubé. “We would produce French shows and of course we would have English [shows], but for this particular site I need to be mindful to try to always have 50/50 percent French and English, this is the first time.”

Zach Fraser, artistic director for Infinithéâtre, said the partnership with TLB couldn’t have come at a better time as the theatre company was looking to expand its touring opportunities to better reach Quebec’s English-speaking communities.  

“We have a history of developing new works, producing new works, but also trying to find ways to extend the lives of the productions we put so much into. (…) Within the Anglophone community of Montreal, the standard is maybe ten performances, a week-and-a-half (…) and it’s rare that you get much more of a life than that,” explained Fraser. “(…) Lac-Brome is of course an ideal opportunity and Lac-Brome, like Montreal, we have multiple communities, living in one community, in one geographic region, and yet there is always overlap.” 

Fraser noted that the role of English theatre companies in Quebec has evolved over the years, but that they’re still significant for audiences and artists alike. For example, Infinithéâtre has more recently provided a platform for Anglophone playwrights, according to Fraser.

“We primarily perform in English, and yet even in the spelling of it, in our logo we have the accents. That was a deliberate choice by Guy Sprung when he founded the company that is Infinithéâtre. It is an Anglophone company that is proudly Anglophone and proudly based in Quebec and both of those things are true,” he highlighted. “It is making sure that there is a space for Anglophone audiences to see theatre, to come together, and yet it’s not intended to be exclusive either. (…) Montreal, where we’re based, it’s such a diverse city on so many levels so Anglophone also means a place for Allophone audiences.”

With so few English theatre companies left in Quebec, Dubé hopes that TBL’s partnership with Infinithéâtre will continue grow to help fill in the gap for English-language theatre in the local community. 

“My wish for the future would be that we are able to take at least two of their productions and that these productions, instead of being presented for just one night, how great would it be [to say that] that it’s there for a whole weekend,” she mentioned. “It would start on the Thursday and then on the Sunday. This is my biggest secret wish for the future is that this partnership just grows.” 

The first Infinithéâtre production that will hit TBL’s stage is Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Stage Play on June 18.

“Hopefully people will respond to this invitation, I’m looking forward for them to see more of Infinithéâtre and Zach’s productions over the years,” said Dubé. 

To hear more about the partnership and the upcoming play, listen to the full interview below: