On May 18th, 2017, Pi held a FirstLook staged reading of The Paradise Arms, a new English translation of Olivier Sylvestre's La beauté du monde.

Our cast for the reading featured Nathan Barrett, Nneka Croal, France Perras, Sarah Roa, Todd Thomson, and Conor Wylie. We were very lucky to have Olivier join us to help Leanna continue developing her translation.

Keltie Forsyth, Pi's Associate Artistic Director, beautifully directed this exciting reading.

An ordinary day, Olivier is out for a stroll with Maryline when, catching sight of a run-down apartment building, he feels a compulsion he doesn't understand. Breaking away from his astonished girlfriend, he runs into the shabby front entrance and rents the apartment in the basement… As Olivier confronts his profound alienation from all aspects of his former life, he is visited by the bizarre and unsettling tenants who people his new home. Meanwhile Maryline is desperately trying to get Olivier to leave the basement… and he starts getting the uneasy feeling that the building itself is trying to suck him further inside...

Translation developed with Playwrights' Workshop Montréal's Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac.

Photo of Olivier Sylvestre above, photo below by Rob Maguire.

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