By Samuel Taylor
Based on the stories by Robert Fontaine
Directed by Jo-Ann McCabe

Listed as a "Comedy of Love", this play is about Bibi Bonnard, a boy of 12, who is "coming of age" as the youngest member of a gaily uninhibited French family in Ottawa in the 1920's. Bibi is totally unaware of the girl next door who likes him but is absolutely smitten when a young chanteuse comes to stay! His Grandpere lives to love and loves to live! His Uncle Louis loves his portable water cooler, filled with wine! His debonair Uncle Desmonde, a traveling salesman, constantly adds to his "trophy case" of ladies' garters! His Papa, who leads the orchestra at the vaudeville, loves his wife, his son, and his music and wants his son to grow up to appreciate the warmth and humour of life, and to understand that "to be truly a man one must know two things: One must know love, one must know truth." 

The quieting influence in this mercurial household is Bibi's mother, Maman, a Scot among Frenchmen, who tries with amused determination to rule her men with some kind of order and usually fails, though in so doing she manages to retain her good-humored tolerance. It is Maman who warns the men that their carefree ways may someday get Bibi into trouble, but when her prediction comes true and the trouble comes, she has reason to be proud of her men, for they rally like the Three Musketeers, rise to the occasion, and show their true honesty and humanity. They strike a blow for freedom, and in a scene that is warmly humorous and deeply touching, Bibi learns what it is "truly to be a man."

Performed on November 25-27, 2010 by the Phoenix Players Cast:

Back Row: Tara Berish, Denis St-Jean, Joel Rahn, Alf McCabe, Bill Brown, David Speck 

Middle Row: Pierre Le Fort, Stephen Liddiard, Ian Buzza, André Dimitrijevic, Art King, Karen Germundson, Lorraine Hopkins 

Front Row: Evan Holland, Meghan Burns, Kimberly Bateman, Jo-Ann McCabe, Sheila Galbraith