ABBY PAIGE

I am deeply gratified to announce that my new solo show, Les filles du QUOI?, will premiere this June at Lost Nation Theater in Montpelier, Vermont. This show is a wild, comedic, ghostly, impassioned ride, and for those of us who have spent the last two years in deep isolation, I think it’s going to be a beautiful way to ease ourselves back into the intimacy and fun of live theater. Buy your tickets now!

LES FILLES DU QUOI?
Lost Nation Theater, Montpelier, Vermont
June 16–26, 2022

Thu/Fri/Sat at 7:30pm and Sun at 2pm
LIVE STREAM ALSO AVAILABLE
Click here for tickets and other info

ABOUT THE SHOW

An American with French-Canadian roots immigrates to Canada, a century after her great-grandparents immigrated in the opposite direction. She has questions: What does “francophone” mean? What’s the deal with the queen? Why is Jack Kerouac the only Franco-American anyone’s ever heard of? Is Céline Dion a witch? With this hilarious, bilingual one-woman show, writer and performer Abby Paige looks for answers, crossing the borders between English and French, the past and the present, the living and the dead, history (L’Histoire) and stories (les histoires).

Les filles du QUOI? has received development support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the New Brunswick Arts Board. Special thanks to Theatre New Brunswick, Lost Nation Theater, and the Franco-American Centre at the University of Maine in Orono, where staged readings and workshop performances of the script have been presented.

ABOUT THE TITLE

Les filles du roi (The Daughters of the King) were a group of about 800 women who were recruited by King Louis XIV to travel to New France between 1663 and 1673 in order to grow the European population of the colony. Today, it is a point of pride among many people to trace their heritage to one of these women, the same way there is special prestige among descendants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in tracing one’s ancestors to the Mayflower. I named the show Les filles du QUOI? (The Daughters of WHAT?) because I wonder what we’re up to when we pursue this kind of narrative for our ancestors, and by extension, ourselves. James Baldwin said, “People who imagine that history flatters them are impaled on their history like a butterfly on a pin and become incapable of seeing or changing themselves, or the world.” I’m interested in sliding off that pin and discovering what other histories we can imagine. 

ABOUT THE PREMIERE

Originally scheduled to premiere in the summer of 2020, Les filles du QUOI? has been waiting in the wings for long time! I’m grateful to Lost Nation Theater for keeping the faith during the pandemic, as well as adhering to local and industry-standard COVID protocols and outfitting their space with a state-of-the-art air purification system, so it feels safe and comfortable to gather there. LNT served as a creative home-base for me in Vermont during the years I lived in Canada, so it’s especially meaningful to bring the show home to them. I’m also honored to be positioned on the LNT schedule right behind Alegwasimek 8thlokadin, a three-week series of Abenaki story, music, art, and culture, which offers Vermont audiences an invaluable opportunity to listen to and learn from our Indigenous neighbors. Especially in light of the legislature’s historic apology to Indigenous and French-heritage people for eugenics policies, I hope Vermonters are contemplating, How do we repair that erasure? Apology is the first step. I look forward to dreaming together about the steps that can follow.