You Will Remember Me

R.H. Thomson, Michela Cannon, Nancy Palk, Kimwun Perehinec, Mark McGrinder in You Will Remember Me. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

Governor General’s Award-winning Quebec playwright Francoise Archambault’s most recent offering, You Will Remember Me, is a thought-provoking drama that explores the existential question of what it means to be human in the digital age.

Edouard (R.H. Thomson) is a middle-aged university professor and public intellectual suffering from Alzheimer’s. We are introduced to the charismatic and intelligent Edouard while he’s in a lucid state, as his long-suffering wife Madeleine (Nancy Palk) explains that “he’s not always like this.” As the play progresses, it becomes apparent that although Edouard has retained elements of his brilliance and charm, his ability to remain in context has evaporated. The play explores the damage his illness inflicts on his relationship with Madeleine and his fiercely independent daughter Isabelle (Kimwun Perehinec) and her latest boyfriend Patrick (Mark McGrinder). However, all is not lost, we learn, as an unusual friendship develops between Edouard and Patrick’s daughter Berenice (Michela Cannon).

Thomson plays the self-satisfied professor with aplomb, while Perehinec’s and Cannon’s strong-willed daughter characters provide the perfect feminine foils. Archambault’s script runs the gamut from heart-wrenching to heart-warming in this timely exploration of memory, loss and redemption of sorts. The play is in essence a meditation on what we are losing as we live more and more of our lives online. Just as Quebec’s language and culture may one day disappear and be submerged by mainstream North American culture, so too may our memories be absorbed by a mind that forgets.

Don’t miss this timely meditation on memory and loss in the digital age. You Will Remember Me runs until April 10, 2016 at Tarragon Theatre. Visit tarragontheatre.com for more information and to buy tickets.