ABSTRACT
In 1984 French-Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay wrote an ingenious little play called Albertine in Five Times. It is the story of one life, the life of Albertine, but told at five different times of her life, by five different Albertines: at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70. The older Albertines know what the younger ones don’t yet know. The younger ones remind the older ones of how different they were in their younger, less cynical and more passionate days. In the play, the five Albertines speak to each other and to their long-dead sister Madeleine. Each has ‘her own story’ but, together, they make a complex single person. It is a revisiting play. And it beautifully illustrates how memory both enlightens and confuses our sense of coherence as evolving individuals. Albertine At 50
You’ve got a short memory.
Albertine At 60What? I don’t know what you mean.
Albertine At 50I’ve stopped complaining too … but I don’t take pills …
Albertine At 60That won’t last …
Albertine At 50Why shouldn’t it?
Albertine At 60Because you’re play-acting. You’re going through a phase where you play at being happy and positive.
Albertine At 70Oh, shut up!
Albertine At 60You’re no different! You’ve convinced yourself you’ll be happy in your stinky little room, but the real you knows better.
Albertine At 70At least I’m glad to be alive …
Albertine At 50So am I … glad to be alive …
Albertine At 60I don’t believe you.
Albertine At 30I’m young, I’m strong, I could do so much if it weren’t for this rage, gnawing at me …
Albertine At 40Sometimes I think it's all that keeps me alive …
Albertine At 30It's true.
Albertine At 60You’ll get over that, too … Rage … Rebellion never solved a thing.
(pp. 45–46)