A newly revised translation of the first play in Wajdi Mouawad's sweeping quartet of plays, Le Sang des promesses.

A wildly theatrical tale of war and individual discovery, Tideline tells the personal story of Wilfrid, a young man born in Montreal, who struggles to bury his father in his parent’s homeland. There, he acquires friends who all dream of a better life, and confronts a country scarred by war, where an additional corpse is one too many. Followed by Scorched and Forests, Tideline is the first part of Wajdi Mouawad’s critically acclaimed dramatic quartet set in the painful wake of the past century.

Wajdi Mouawad was born in Lebanon in 1968. Mouawad fled the war-torn country with his family; they lived in Paris for a few years, then settled in Montreal. In 1991, shortly after graduating from the National Theatre School, he embarked on a career as an actor, writer, director, and producer. In all his work, from his own plays—a dozen so far, including Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons (Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons’), Littoral (Tideline), and Incendies (Scorched – which served as the basis for the Academy Award nominated film Incendies)—Wajdi Mouawad is guided by the central notion that “all art bears witness to human existence through the prism of beauty.” From 2000–2004 he was the artistic director of Montreal’s Théâtre de Quat’Sous; in 2005 he founded two companies specializing in the development of new work: Abé carré cé carré in Canada (with Emmanuel Schwartz), and Au carré de l’hypoténuse in France. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honours for his writing and directing, including the 2000 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (Littoral), the 2002 Chevalier de l’Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres (France) and the 2004 Prix de la Francophonie. He is currently Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre French Theatre.

Shelley Tepperman is one of Canada's pre-eminent play translators and a dramaturg with a long history in Canadian theatre specializing in script development, project development, and translation for the stage. She translates from French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese and her more than thirty play translations—three of which were nominated for Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award—have been produced on CBC Radio and on stages throughout North America and the United Kingdom. Recent translations include Jennifer Tremblay's The List (La liste), The Carousel (Le carrousel), and The Deliverance (La Délivrance); Wajdi Mouawad's Pacamambo, Tideline (Littoral), Alphonse, and Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons' (Journée de noces chez les Cro-magnons); and Molière by Sabina Berman. Shelley spent several years working for CBC Radio Arts and Entertainment. She also works in documentary film and television as a writer, director, and story editor.