Founded in 2000, we are now proudly celebrates our 25th anniversary. Since our beginnings, we’ve championed the creation of documentary theatre in Quebec, contributing to shape today’s theatre scene. Last year, 1 out of every 4 plays being created in the province was a documentary theatre play.
Our project is both simple and ambitious: to give a voice to those who are too often unheard, in order to foster collective reflection and fuel public debate. For 25 years, For 25 years, we have made theatre a meeting ground—where perspectives collide, where listening is possible, and where dialogue enriches us all.
From 2025 to 2027, we invite you to celebrate this journey with us: to revisit the works that have shaped our path and to imagine, together, the future of documentary theatre.
To highlight our anniversary, Bzoing has created a festive and bold new visual identity.
Events
We’re celebrating its 25-year history by paying tribute to landmark works, collaborators, and presenting partners, and by recognizing the vital participation of audiences who have been there every step of the way. The 2025–2027 program will feature flagship events that commemorate the company’s exceptional journey. It will bring together longtime collaborators and revisit issues that remain timely, exploring how these debates have evolved.
Emily Mann and Annabel Soutar in Conversation
October 6, 2026
Centaur Theatre
The anniversary celebrations begin with a conversation moderated by Robert Lepage, presented in collaboration with McGill University’s Department of English and Centaur Theatre.
Novembre, 25 years later
February 9th, 2026
Café du Monument-National
A quarter century after Novembre, Porte Parole reopens the investigation that launched its theatrical journey, enlisting two young artists to find out what today’s Québec has to say about its democracy.
More events will be announced over the next two years—stay tuned!
Porte Parole Through the Years
Timeline
| 1992 | At Princeton University, Annabel Soutar discovers documentary theatre through a class taught by Emily Mann and the work of Anna Deveare Smith. She becomes aware of the power of a form that brings art and politics together to open dialogue on major social issues. |
| After seeing him on stage in 1996, Annabel hires Alex Ivanovici in 1997 for her Fringe play, entitled Play, which they tour from Montreal to Vancouver. Alex plays Abel, her male alter ego. | 1997 |
| 1998 | Annabel and Alex travel across Quebec with a tape recorder during the provincial election pitting Lucien Bouchard, Jean Charest, and Mario Dumont against one another. They interview people of all backgrounds to understand a moment of division and apathy in Quebec politics. |
| Founding of Porte Parole Porte Parole’s first play, Novembre, a bilingual creation drawn from the verbatim interviews conducted by Soutar and Ivanovici in 1998), premieres at the Monument-National. | 2000 |
| 2001–2004 | The early years → 2000 Questions, by Annabel Soutar : a deep dive into financial markets at the time of the dot-com-bubble burst, probing the heart of capitalism. → Santé! : seven short plays exploring the major debates surrounding Quebec’s health-care system. → Montréal La Blanche, by Bachir Bensaddek : What does it mean to be Algerian in Montreal? More than 30,000 Algerian immigrants can attest to it. Playwright Bachir Bensaddek shares their stories, offering an intimate, moving portrait of this community in the metropolis. The first Porte Parole play written by another author. |
| Premiere of Seeds by Annabel Soutar, recounting the legal battle between farmer Percy Schmeiser and multinational Monsanto over GMO seeds. | 2006 |
| 2008 | Import/Export A play by Annabel Soutar examining Quebec’s textile industry as it is hit hard by globalization. |
| Sexy Béton by Annabel Soutar with Maude Laurendeau and Brett Watson. Inspired by the collapse of Laval’s Concorde overpass, the piece investigates civil responsibility, corruption, and the fragility of public infrastructure. → Porte Parole’s first Quebec tour. | 2009 |
| 2012 | A remount of Seeds and the premiere of its French version, Grains, translated by Fanny Britt. → Seeds reaches more than 42,000 audience members over 14 years. → Seeds is published as a book three times: the original English version at Talonbooks, Fanny Britt’s French translation at Écosociété, and a Traditional Chinese edition following its presentation at Hong Kong’s Documentary Theatre Festival. |
| The Watershed by Annabel Soutar. Commissioned for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, the work explores Canada’s debate over the future of water and environmental governance amid federal political tensions. A French translation by Fanny Britt, Le partage des eaux, is staged at Usine C the same year. | 2015 |
| 2016 | Fredy by Annabel Soutar. A stage investigation into the death of Fredy Villanueva, a young Honduran refugee shot by police in Montreal, raising difficult questions about racial profiling, justice, and collective memory. |
| The first public presentation of J’aime Hydro at the Festival TransAmériques. → Over 75,000 spectators in 128 performances (FTA, Usine C, Juste pour rire, La Licorne, La Bordée, Théâtre Maisonneuve, Duceppe, three Quebec tours culminating at Le Grand T in Nantes). → Over 40,000 unique listeners of the podcast. → A television version directed by Pascal L’Heureux airs on ICI ARTV and ICI Télé in 2019. → A book published by Atelier 10. | 2016 |
| 2018 | Launch of L’Assemblée / The Assembly, a theatrical concept by Annabel Soutar, Alex Ivanovici, and Brett Watson conceived in response to the rising polarization following the election of Donald Trump in the United States. The ongoing series now counts eight episodes. → The first two episodes—one in French and one in English—are presented at Espace GO and the Segal Centre, respectively. → Through a partnership with Télé-Québec, L’Assemblée – Montréal reaches 76,000 television viewers. → In the years that follow, the project travels to Quebec City, across Canada, to the United States, Munich, Lithuania, and Brazil, creating episodes that reflect the tensions specific to each place visited. |
| Tout inclus by François Grisé An immersive investigation on the experience of living in seniors’ residences in Quebec. | 2019 |
| 2021 | Rose et la machine by Maude Laurendeau. The story of a mother navigating the health and education systems with her autistic daughter. → Named “Spectacle de l’année” at the 2021–2022 Prix Duceppe gala. Julie Le Breton (Best Actress) and Édith Patenaude (Best Director) are also honored. → The text by Maude Laurendeau is published by L’instant même. → The play is translated into English and presented at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. |
| Projet Polytechnique, a play by Jean-Marc Dalphond and Marie-Joanne Boucher revisiting the anti-feminist massacre of December 6, 1989, and exploring the transmission of memory, male radicalization, and contemporary gender-based violence, premieres at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. → 25,000 spectators in theatres. → A Quebec tour to 17 cities. → A podcast on OHDio with over 135,000 listens. | 2023 |
| 2023 | The first edition of the Porte Parole Pitch, an incubator for new documentary theatre projects. Manuelle Légaré wins the first edition, followed by Jesse Freeston in 2024 and Sophie Gee in 2025. → To date, 14 creators have been accompanied by Porte Parole and by seasoned mentors from the theatre community. |
| In April 2026, Club sandwich mayonnaise by Manuelle Légaré—first winner of the Pitchs Porte Parole—will premiere. The play explores medical assistance in dying through the story of her father, comedian Pierre Légaré. | 2026 |
