The Debacle – Susan Leblanc and Ann-Marie Kerr

Creators: Susan Leblanc and Ann-Marie Kerr

Nominator: Nate Crawford

Seconders: Gay Hauser, Ed Thomason

The Debacle premiered in Halifax in April 2011 and played in Toronto in December of that year as part of the Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell Festival. It is a co-creation of actor and Zuppa Theatre Artistic Director, Susan Leblanc and director, Ann-Marie Kerr. The program website: Festival TransAmérique, Montréal describes it this way. “Prostrate and dishevelled, Margaret is surrounded by hundreds of Mason jars containing childhood secrets. She slowly opens them one by one, gradually letting go of the chaos that haunts her. Exhausted by grief, she clings to fragments of memories that evoke a family that has disappeared. She must go back in time, into the panic and terror of memory, and try to recall moments of lost innocence.

Jury comment: “The Debacle, strong theatrical vision masterfully realized.”