Nicolas Billon (born March 22, 1978) is a Canadian writer. He is best known for his plays ''

The Elephant Song ''The Elephant Song'' is a Canadian stage play by Nicolas Billon, first presented in 2002 and since performed across Canada and around the world. There is also a film adaptation of the play, released in 2014. History ''The Elephant Song'', by C ...

'', ''

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

'', and ''

Butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...

''.

Biography

Nicolas Billon was born in Ottawa,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

and grew up in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. He is the son of Johanne Archambault and writer Pierre Billon. ''The Elephant Song'', his first play, premiered at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2004. His second play, ''The Measure of Love'', was produced there in 2005. A member of the inaugural

Soulpepper Soulpepper is a theater company based in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest non-profit theater in the city. History Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists aiming to produce lesser-known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has sinc ...

Academy, Nicolas's version of Anton Chekhov's '' Three Sisters'' was produced at Soulpepper in 2007, directed by László Marton. He also co-created ''BLiNK'' with the other members of the Academy for the

Luminato Festival Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artists fr ...

. In 2009, Billon joined the

Tarragon Tarragon (''Artemisia dracunculus''), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herb in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America and is cultivated for culinary and medicinal purposes ...

Playwrights Unit. That June, his adaptation of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

's ''The Sicilian'' was one of the hits of the

Toronto Fringe Festival The Toronto Fringe Festival is an annual theatre festival, featuring un-juried plays by unknown or well-known artists, taking place in the theatres of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Several productions originally mounted at the Fringe have later been ...

. A few months later, his play ''Greenland'' opened at the 2009 SummerWorks Theatre Festival. It was a critical and audience success, and won both the Now Magazine Audience Choice Award and the SummerWorks Outstanding Production Award. Later that year, Billon was voted one of the Top 10 Theatre Artists of 2009 by Toronto's ''Now Magazine''. Billon was a finalist for and won the 2013

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. Th ...

for Drama for ''Fault Lines''. His play ''The Elephant Song'' was adapted into the 2014 film '' Elephant Song'', directed by

Charles Binamé Charles Binamé (born May 25, 1949) is a Quebec director. He was born in Belgium and came to Montreal with his family at a young age. He joined the National Film Board of Canada as an assistant director in 1971, but soon left for the private sect ...

and starring

Bruce Greenwood Stuart Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956) is a Canadian actor and producer. He is known for his role as the American president John F. Kennedy in '' Thirteen Days,'' for which he won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion ...

Xavier Dolan Xavier Dolan-Tadros (; born 20 March 1989) is a Canadian filmmaker, actor and costume designer. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2 ...

, and

Catherine Keener Catherine Ann Keener (born March 26, 1959) is an American actress. She has portrayed disgruntled and melancholic yet sympathetic women in independent films, as well as supporting roles in studio films. She has been nominated twice for the Acad ...

."TIFF 2014 to screen Xavier Dolan and Denys Arcand films"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

, August 6, 2014. His screenplay garnered both the 2015 Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the 2015 WGC Screenwriting Award for Features & Mini-Series. Billon's play, ''Butcher'', premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects in October 2014. The play deals with the theme of justice and features several characters who speak Lavinian, an invented language created by two linguists,

Christina Kramer Christina Elizabeth Kramer is Professor of Slavic and Balkan languages and linguistics at the University of Toronto and Chair of the university's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures which is part of the Faculty of Arts and Science. ...

and Dragana Obradović, specifically for the play."Learning Lavinian: professors create a new Slavic language"
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Film

Feature films

* '' Elephant Song'' (2014)

Short films

* ''Hyperlight'' (2018) * ''How Tommy Lemenchick Became a Grade 7 Legend'' (2016) * ''A Kindness'' (2012) * ''The Exit'' (2010)

Theatre

Plays

* ''Butcher'' (2014) * ''Faroe Islands'' (2013) * ''Iceland'' (2012) * ''The Safe Word'' (2011) * ''Greenland'' (2009) * ''The Measure of Love'' (2005) * ''

'' (2004)

Adaptations

* Stevenson's ''Treasure Island'' (2017) *

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

' ''Agamemnon'' (2016) *

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

& Steffin's ''Rifles'' (2014) *

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

' ''Iphigenia at Aulis'' (2010) *

's ''The Sicilian'' (2009) *

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

's ''Three Sisters'' (2007)

Collaborations

* ''I'm So Close'' (2010) * ''BLiNK'' (2008)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Billon, Nicolas 1978 births Living people Writers from Ottawa Writers from Montreal Governor General's Award-winning dramatists Best Screenplay Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Canadian Film Centre alumni 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters