André Brassard, an emblematic figure who projected Quebec theater into the modern age in the 1960s, received a concert of praise from relatives and friends in the hours after his death on Tuesday evening after a long illness. The 76-year-old, who is closely associated with Michel Tremblay’s dramaturgy, has directed most of his works, including The sisters-in-law, Montreal will be waiting for me in the morning, Hosanna and Forever your Marie-Lou.
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• Also read: Michel Tremblay, René Richard Cyr and Denise Filiatrault pay tribute to André Brassard
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The director and producer with Lorraine Pintal at the Cinémathèque Québécoise.
André Brassard was hospitalized for several weeks and had endured difficult years since his stroke in 1999. He died at Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal. His death profoundly shocked the Quebec theater community.
“I am shocked. He was one of the most important people in my life,” Michel Tremblay said in radio interviews on Wednesday morning.
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With Denise Filiatrault in 2012 during the Quebecor Tribute evening at the Mont Royal Chalet.
Denise Filiatraut, who played Rose Ouimet in the first version of Les Belles-sœurs, called him a brilliant director.
“Talent, even learned, he worked in the service of work and the theater, making us do our best. And with relentlessness, sometimes at the expense of his health,” she said in a press release from the Théâtre du Rideau Vert.
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André Brassard and his lifelong accomplice Michel Tremblay.
modern theatre
André Brassard drove the staging work for the director and actor René Richard-Cyr.
“It is often said that he brought theater into the modern age. Not just in terms of his work with Tremblay, but [dans] his work in relation to re-reading certain classics, where he brought meaning to the fore. It had a huge impact on multiple generations,” he said.
The National Arts Center in Ottawa, where he was artistic director of French Theater between 1983 and 1980, lowered its flag to half-mast on Wednesday morning.
In 2000, a year after suffering a stroke, André Brassard received the Denise Pelletier Prize, awarded by the Quebec government to recognize his remarkable contribution to the performing arts.
André Brassard was born in Montreal on August 28, 1946 and entered the theater at Sainte-Marie College, where he directed the first act of Le Malade imaginaire in the seventh grade under the direction of Jean Gascon.
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With Gilles Vigneault and Jean-Louis Roux rehearsing the play La Passion du Christ at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in December 1973.
Important meeting
A chance encounter with Michel Tremblay at Parc La Fontaine marked the beginning of a long collaboration with the author early in his career.
After staging the Messe noire, a collage of fantastic works by Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft and Jean Rau, and Les Troyennes by Euripides for the Théâtre des Saltimbanques, he directed the 1966 play Les Bonnes et Cinq by Michel Tremblay. at Le Patriote.
Two years later, Tremblay and Brassard’s tandem rocked Quebec theater with Les Belles-Sœurs, staged at the Théâtre du Rideau-Vert. The premiere took place on August 28, 1968. Denise Proulx, Denise Filiatrault, Hélène Loiselle, Rita Lafontaine and Luce Guilbeault were cast in this classic piece.
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For the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Les Belles-Sœurs on August 28, 1988 with René Richard-Cyr.
With Les Belles-Sœurs, André Brassard brought the language of journalism, the language of the street and the kitchen to the stage. A shock that collided with a more international French among the productions.
This bombshell play changed everything for the young director in his early twenties, for Michel Tremblay and for Quebec theater.
This direct, to-the-point language has influenced many directors of all generations. He introduced a style, an approach and a signature.
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André Brassard at the premiere of Michel Tremblay’s Sainte Carmen de la Main in July 1976.
André Brassard directed all Michel Tremblay productions for 35 years. The two names were inseparable. After Cinq and Les Belles-Sœurs, the tandem rose in the 1970s, In spares, Montreal awaits me tomorrow morning, The Duchess of Langeais, Forever, your Marie-Lou, Hosianna, Hello, hello, Saint Carmen de la Main, damn Manon, holy Sandra. The Past Anterior and The Imperative Present will be their final collaborations.
André Brassard also collaborated with Tremblay and composer André Gagnon on the creation of the romantic opera Nelligan for the Opéra de Montréal in 1990.
Without compromise
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With Andrée Lachapelle at the premiere of the play Oh les beaux jours by Samuel Beckett.
The director didn’t just work with Tremblay’s words and lyrics. He has directed works by Réjean Ducharme, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare, Racine, Feydeau, Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, Marcel Dubé, Chekhov, Brecht and Michel Marc Bouchard. The list is impressive: around 120 productions in 40 years.
Brassard did things his own way and without compromise. The man was a powerful being in everyday life, direct, rebellious and provocative. In 1972, at a time when taboos were immense, he revealed his homosexuality.
In 1975 he will serve a 90-day prison sentence spread over weekends for gross indecency. Photos of naked boys and young men between the ages of 14 and 20 were found in his home.
André Brassard was also an actor and directed the films Françoise Durocher, Waitress (1972), Once Upon a Time in the East (1974) and The Sun Rises Late (1977). He directed the television series Frédéric, which aired on Radio-Canada and France on TF1 from 1979-1980.
He was also artistic director of the French section of the National Theater School of Canada from 1991 to 2000.
Nice testimonials
“ I am one of the privileged people who met André Brassard. I have lived with him in the midst of his finest theatrical experiences, and I am indebted to him for mine. As long as there’s theater down here, it’ll be among us. »
– Denis Bouchard
“ André Brassard was a pre-eminent artist in our Québec culture and a major player in the emergence of Québec’s gay community. »
-Alex Peron
“ You will continue to guide me, you always have. You showed me how to act, all thanks to you, this theater, this love. It’s time to play for me again, for you André I’ll play again and set the stage on fire. Promised. »
– Fanny Weibrenner
“ André Brassard was a larger than life theater man. With Tremblay, they turned convention on its head and shook the pillars of the temple. What a legacy! »
– Salomé Corbo
“ André Brassard, his dazzling theatrical and social intelligence, his penetrating gaze and his mocking smile. A large. »
– Marie-France Bazzo