Musical Patenteuses Set for Sudbury Première by Créations In Vivo

French-language musical comedy Patenteuses landed its first northern Ontario performance in Sudbury on November 13, bringing a feminist twist to the secretive history of the Ordre de Jacques-Cartier.

Presented at the Place des Arts du Grand Sudbury in partnership with La Slague, the Créations In Vivo production follows an initial launch in Orléans. The staging marks a homecoming for several members of the troupe.

Written by Chloé Thériault, the show reimagines the 20th-century secret society better known as La Patente. Founded in Vanier, Ontario, in 1926, the real organization operated in secret for nearly forty years to protect French-Canadian heritage.

“I told myself, ‘Man, I’d really love to write a story about a Francophone mafia,'” Thériault said, recalling how a conversation with theater figure Michel Laforge sparked the idea during a 2023 acting stint in Sudbury.

The musical centers on four women from the fictional village of Saint-Cibole who discover their husbands belong to the secretive men’s society. To find out where their spouses disappear to each evening, the protagonists infiltrate the organization disguised as priests.

The cast features Darquise Lauzon as Marielle, Emma-Rose Smith as Rita, Ariane Lemay as Dorothée, and Thériault as Lucile. Director Dillon Orr, a graduate of the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario, leads the production alongside producer Ariane Carrière.

Ticket demand for the tour prompted an extra performance during the Orléans run. “When I saw that we sold out eight weeks before opening, just that is proof that we are doing something that touches people,” Orr said.

Following its two-night run in Sudbury ending on November 14, the troupe continues its provincial tour before returning to northern communities including Hearst, Timmins, Chapleau, and North Bay in late winter.

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