Marshall Button’s LUCIEN

Lucien, the opinionated North Shore mill-worker and New Brunswick’s Blue-Collar Philosopher first appeared in Fredericton, N.B. as part of a satirical Bicentennial revue, Maritime Mixed Grill. The character was created by New Brunswick theatre artist Marshall Button, who put together a two-minute monologue for what he thought would be a brief dinner-theatre appearance in February 1984. Over the ensuing two decades, the character has evolved to the point of assimilating well-over eight hours of bilingual material, which has found its way into four different full-length plays; LUCIEN, LUCIEN’S LABOUR LOST, LUCIEN SNOWBIRD and LUCIEN ‘HELTER SMELTER’. He has contributed countless commentary performances for CBC Radio and Television, including a guest appearance on Royal Canadian Airfarce, and on Sportsnet during the 2006 Memorial Cup Hockey Tournament. Marshall has performed Lucien well over fifteen hundred times, from coast to coast in every Canadian province, and has appeared regularly during Moncton’s HubCap Comedy Festival.

Lucien has played for audiences from five to 5,000. The show continues to be a hit on professional theatre stages across Canada.

LUCIEN

Lucien began innocently enough, as a character played for friends at parties and to pass the time at various jobs in the paper mill in Dalhousie, N.B during Marshall Button’s university days. After some reluctance, he was convinced by fellow theatre professionals to develop the character further. In 1984, the Comedy Asylum Theatre Company put together a satirical musical revue celebrating the 200th anniversary of New Brunswick’s incorporation. The show Maritime Mixed Grill enjoyed a terrific one-year run, throughout which the character seemed to expand both in stage time and dimension. In March of 1986, the solo show Lucien, A Labour of Love in Two Acts received its premiere in Fredericton. Since then it has been performed well over six hundred times across Canada. The show now plays like a period-piece, and reflects a time when jobs were plentiful, unions were strong and job security was not a dirty word.

LUCIEN: “HELTER SMELTER”

Last seen as a Florida tourist, The New Brunswick mill worker Lucien returns to his North Shore roots where we find him smelt fishing in a colony of shanties on the Bay of Chaleur - still expounding on world issues, national crises, love, sex and politics. In his hilariously famous manner, Lucien is forced to ponder even bigger issues when global warming cuts his frozen shanty town loose and turns it into a floating state separating from Canada - heading towards Quebec, infinity and beyond.

Marshall Button has performed his beloved Lucien well over fifteen hundred times from coast to coast, where the show continues to be a hit on professional stages across Canada.