Les Amateurs Typographes

Amateurs Typographes, Les

Sometime in the late 1830s, members of the Union typographique de Québec founded a theatre company called Les Amateurs Typographes. Under the direction of Aimé-Nicolas dit Napoléon Aubin, the company remained in existence until 1876. Aubin, who was born in Switzerland and came - via the US - to Québec City in January 1835 as a correspondent of the Montréal newspaper La Minerve, married in 1841 the daughter of notary Michel-Flavien Sauvageau, and became friends with some former members of the JEUNES MESSIEURS CANADIENS.

In his roles as journalist, typographer and theatre director, he associated himself with republican and socialist ideas and was jailed in 1839 for writing and printing a poem in support of the 1837 PATRIOTES. Also in 1839 Aubin directed performances of Voltaire's La Mort de César and Aubin's Le Chant des ouvriers, which were applauded so heavily that police feared a new uprising.

In addition to performing plays by French playwrights, Les Amateurs Typographes performed local plays such as Le Soldat Français (1839) by Leblanc de Marconnay, La Donation (1842) by Pierre Petitclair, A quelque chose malheur est bon (1863) by Jules-Fabien Gingras, and Les Vengeances (1876) by Pamphile Le May.