The Centaur Theatre
presents Kisses Deep
The English-language premiere of Michel Marc Bouchard’s haunting drama of fashion, family and redemption
By Irwin Rapoport
December 1, 2025
The English-language world premiere of Kisses Deep, a thrilling new play by the world-renowned Michel Marc Bouchard, runs until December 14 at the Centaur Theatre in Old Montreal.
Originally premiering in French at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in a co-production with Centaur in 2021, Kisses Deep (Embrasse) now takes on new life in English, reuniting many of the original creative team under the direction of Centaur’s Artistic and Executive Director Eda Holmes, who also helmed the TNM co-production.
Holmes is keen to direct the English version of the play, translated by Linda Gaboriau, Bouchard’s acclaimed long-time collaborator.
“I am so thrilled to finally be able to bring this beautiful play to life in English,” said Holmes. “Revisiting the production that I created in French at TNM with a brilliant cast of bilingual actors, some from the original production and some joining the team for the Centaur premiere, is a rare gift. Kisses Deep, like all of Michel Marc’s work, pulses with passion, humour and love.”
A haunting, stylish drama about fashion, family, and redemption, Kisses Deep follows a young designer determined to rebuild his mother’s dignity – one stitch at a time. The play captures all the intensity, humour, and tenderness of Bouchard’s original French text (Embrasse), introducing it to new audiences in a city defined by its linguistic duality.
A haunting, stylish drama about fashion, family, and redemption, Kisses Deep follows a young designer determined to rebuild his mother’s dignity – one stitch at a time.
At the centre of the story is Hugo, a young man in the small town of Quebec, consumed by his passion for high fashion and dreams of becoming a designer. Inspired by his idol, Yves Saint Laurent, Hugo channels his creativity and obsession into a singular mission: to restore the tarnished reputation of his mother, Béatrice, after she is arrested for assault. Determined to help her reclaim her dignity, Hugo decides to save his mother by designing the perfect outfit for her upcoming court appearance. As he stitches together his masterpiece, Hugo is forced to confront the complexities of his bond with Béatrice – a relationship coloured by both tenderness and pain.
The cast features an ensemble of some of the most celebrated stars from Montreal’s French and English theatre scenes, including Lyndz Dantiste, Yves Jacques, Leni Parker, Alice Pascual and newcomer Kevin Raymond, Kisses Deep invites audiences on a visually striking and emotionally charged journey of self-discovery and redemption.
Bouchard, one of Quebec’s most acclaimed playwrights, is celebrated internationally for his soulful storytelling and wide-ranging explorations of identity, memory, and desire. His works – including Lilies, The Madonna Painter, and Tom at the Farm – have been translated into multiple languages and adapted for film and opera. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Award for Drama, the Prix Athanase-David for lifetime achievement in literature, and the Blue Metropolis Violet Prize for LGBTQ writers.
The English-language premiere of Kisses Deep underscores Centaur Theatre’s commitment to bridging linguistic and cultural divides in Montreal and Quebec more broadly. The run will feature several performances surtitled in French, as well as talkbacks with the cast and crew that shed light on the creative process.
Director Eda Holmes and actors Kevin Raymond and Lyndz Dantiste replied to questions about the production and how it came together.
WM: How did you prepare to direct the play, and to what extent did you collaborate with the playwright?
Holmes: If I am directing a new play with a living playwright, I begin by discussing the text in depth with the playwright to understand what drove them to write the particular play at this particular time. In the case of Kisses Deep, Michel Marc Bouchard wrote many drafts of the play in French before we started rehearsals for the French production that we did at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) in 2021. I did rough translations into English of every draft for myself in order to make sure I understood the play in detail. Michel Marc explained early on that he wanted to explore his relationship with his mother, who, like the character Beatrice in the play, owned a fabric shop in a small town near Lac St. Jean. The play evolved over each draft to reveal a beautiful story of the transformation of the troubled relationship between a mother and her extremely talented son, who is looking for a way out of the small provincial town that is limiting his ambition.
WM: How did you assemble the cast, and how do you get the best performances out of the actors?
Holmes: The cast for this production is a combination of the cast from the production at TNM who speak English and new actors from the Montreal community who are perfect for the parts. We began rehearsals at the end of October, working through the script scene by scene to begin with. I like to work in broad strokes at the beginning, and as the actors become more and more familiar with the text and the characters, the process becomes more and more detailed. Now we are at the point where we are breaking down individual moments in the play to create as much emotional truth as we can.
WM: At which point did you realize that all of the elements for the play-acting, set design, costumes, music, lighting, etc., all came together, and how do you sustain that moment for the performances?”
Holmes: The set design is the first step in the creative process once we decide to program a play. The set designer, Michael Gianfrancesco, and I began work on the design almost a year before we created the first production in 2021. Because we began during the pandemic, we were trying to find a way to make the play work with the social distancing restrictions in place at the time. Since the main character, Hugo, has a tendency to kiss people he barely knows, we embedded projections into the design in case we needed to describe the action of kissing to the audience. We were relieved that the social distancing requirements were lifted just before we began rehearsals in 2021.
Sadly, the Omicron variant that came along in December of 2021, when we were rehearsing the English production, forced us to cancel that version entirely. Thankfully, we are taking it up again at Centaur now. The costumes came after the set design and were extremely important to the play as it involves Hugo making a tuxedo for his mother. Lighting and sound came in as we began rehearsals, showing the designer’s work coming out of the rehearsal room. I had meetings with them to discuss the world of the play and how I imagined all the technical elements working together. We put the whole thing together in one week before the audience sees it.
‘The cast for this production is a combination of the cast from the production at TNM who speak English and new actors from the Montreal community who are perfect for the parts.’
– Eda Holmes, director, Kisses Deep
WM: How did you prepare for your roles?
Raymond: For the role, it felt only natural to dive into Yves Saint Laurent’s world. During my last trip to Paris in September, I made a point of visiting the location of his final creative house, which is now a museum. It happened to be closed for renovations, but I still walked around the neighbourhood and tried to get a sense of the environment he lived and created in.
I never felt the need to imitate him – Hugo exists on his own terms – but because Hugo is such an admirer of YSL, I knew he’d be familiar with the designer’s major collections, his artistic process, and his research approach. So I watched several documentaries about his work, and even a few films about his life, just to understand the man behind the legend.
I also spent a lot of time going through Michel Marc Bouchard’s writing to get a better feel for his artistic vocabulary. What struck me is how both Bouchard and Saint Laurent looked to the masters who came before them in order to create something uniquely their own.
And honestly, maybe that’s what it takes to grow in your craft – you study the greats, you absorb what speaks to you, and then you find a way to reinvent it in your own voice.
Dantiste: It really depends on each role and the impact my character has on the play. For Kisses Deep, I was reading the play, and from the monologues, I could figure out certain traits of my character’s personality. I focused on those aspects once we started rehearsing. Once I’m in contact with my coworkers and I get to see their work, it evolves, changes or confirms certain of my initial choices. I try to find new ways to connect what I say to real emotions, and to listen to my partners because they might give me new insights into my character that I didn’t see before. But most of all, I try to have fun. It’s easy to intellectualize what we’re doing. I think it’s good for the start of the work, but after a certain point, we have to enjoy, have fun, surprise our partners and enjoy each moment.
WM: What drew you to acting?
Raymond: I’ve always loved performing. I grew up in a family that spent a lot of time in front of the TV, and as a kid, I remember wanting my mom to look at me the way she looked at the actors on the screen. Without even thinking about it, I started mimicking voices – almost like doing my own little dubbing sessions in the living room. That’s when it clicked for me that “playing pretend” and doing voices could actually be a real job.
Later on, I went to an elementary school with a music-focused program, Le Plateau, and that’s really where everything opened up for me. That’s where I fell in love with singing and with theatre. It just felt… natural, like I’d finally found the thing I was meant to do.
Dantiste: I was always on a stage when I was young. I was a dancer, most particularly, a Michael Jackson impersonator. I just loved it. Later in life, I wanted to do voice acting and dubbing. That’s when I got into a theatre school (CEGEP Marie-Victorin), met with one of my friends, Chanel Mings, who wanted to do her auditions for the other theatre schools, and we got in! There was no particular reason why I wanted to do acting. As weird as it may sound, I think acting was calling for me more than anything. It’s just a few decisions here and there that have brought me to where I am today. And I don’t regret it because I get to work with amazing people.
Images: Andrée Lanthier
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Irwin Rapoport is a freelance journalist and community advocate from Westmount with bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science from Concordia University. He writes extensively on local politics, education, and environmental issues, and promotes informed public discourse and local democracy through his writing and activism.
