On the terrace with Catherine Dorion | “I have no regrets”

(Quebec) This summer, our journalists spend time every week on the terrace with a personality for a friendly discussion. Luc Boulanger sat down with Catherine Dorion, who is returning to art after an eventful stint in politics.

Catherine Dorion is sorry for the journalist. She has arranged to meet on a terrace near her home, on Chemin de la Canardière, in the Limoilou district of Quebec City. But a construction site disrupts our conversation. We will move inside for the rest of the interview, during which the woman confides without filter. With generosity.

In his work Hotheads (Lux Éditeur), sold over 10,000 copies, the former MP recounts the whirlwind of her life at the National Assembly; “a poor, moldy political theatre where the light never entered,” she writes. “Catherine experienced a heartache with politics. That’s what comes out of her book,” says her former teacher and mentor at the Conservatoire de Québec Marc Doré.

His differences with the political-media elite and the bonzes of Québec solidaire are well known. The Press therefore did not go to meet him to return to this well-documented chapter. We prefer to talk to him about his artistic vision, about the place of poets in the political sphere. Looking back, was it utopian to want to change the institution from the inside?

Oh well… We would have thought the opposite. “What didn’t work,” retorts Dorion, “is the old political patent, the psychological battles to have more power, the lies, the manipulation, etc. But I have no regrets. I’m not bitter at all. I’m proud to have lasted the run for four years, without worrying before. Thanks to the support of citizens. »

Contempt for elites

During her mandate as deputy for Taschereau, Ms.^me Dorion has always proudly claimed her status as an artist. How are artists like her welcomed at the Salon bleu? “The political environment is diverse. Not everyone was against me. I believe that we have as much of a place in the National Assembly as the doctors, lawyers, business people and entrepreneurs who sit there. And who all feel legitimate in passing bills.”

In his eyes, the difficulty of recognizing the expertise of artists in Parliament goes beyond this emblematic place. “It illustrates how, in circles of power, art is not important,” she says.

The power of affect

However, Jacques Parizeau once declared on television: “The Quiet Revolution was the work of four ministers, about twenty civil servants, and about twenty singers and poets.” In the 1960s and 1970s, artists were at the forefront of political theater. Moreover, in his book, Dorion talks about the enthusiasm of the actresses of that time.

We told him that this passage reminded us of the evening of November 15, 1976. While the victory of the PQ candidates at the Paul-Sauvé Centre was announced by Denise Filliatrault, Pauline Julien, Doris Lussier… “Yes, all artists!” Dorion adds.

“Nowadays, politics, especially on the left, is monopolized by people convinced that what is important is the rational, the Cartesian. But in reality, most people don’t work like that. Since the dawn of time, humans have done strange, irrational things. Our traditions [culturelles, religieuses] are driven by the belief in invisible things, not calculable, but very important in our lives. »

Get out of your head

“Catherine, as an artist before her political life, was already not flattering in the right direction. His words were already very committed, on the margins, sensitive and courageous. At the Conservatory, she was very good at clowning. Both funny, a bit irreverent and touching. We felt the child in her,” remembers director Maryse Lapierre, who knew the former MP at theater school in the early 2000s.

The main person concerned remembers her training years very well. “The Conservatory transformed me radically! At 19, I was in a good place in my head. I was skilled in naturalistic acting, but as soon as it came to going into emotions, feelings… I blocked! Luckily, I had amazing teachers! Real masters and pedagogues, like Paule Savard and Marc Doré, who took me out of my comfort zone.”

After her studies, Catherine Dorion founded with her chum of the time, Nicola-Frank Vachon, the company Le concern collective (sic). And creates “striking” shows, like Fuck toute or When the wise man points to the moon, the fool looks at the fingerThe actress especially likes improvisation, farcical theatre, clowning. To find “this state of pure innocence, without going through the intellect”.

Catherine Dorion does not call herself a “woman of the theatre” for all that. She much prefers creation to repertoire. It is not tomorrow that we will see her on the stage of the TNM as Lady Macbeth… Although she is not closing any doors.

The return of committed theater

While she is ardently mobilizing against the state of things, Catherine Dorion is enthusiastic about the future of the world. “In Quebec, there are more things that unite us than things that divide us,” she says.

“When I left the Conservatory, 20 years ago, I wanted to do political theater. At the time, everyone told me that engaged art was mothballs. Today, theater activism is fashionable, in programming and festivals. I find that very positive. »

Catherine Dorion returns to theater for her next project, Sciences po 101subtitle : Treatise on insubordination for the use of the real world. An “immersive and extraordinary” show which will be created in February 2025 at the Grand Théâtre de Québec, with director Alexandre Fecteau and creator Vincent Massé-Gagné. Before being presented in Montreal, then on tour in Quebec.

The artist will be very busy in the coming months. Dorion will also make a documentary film and she wants to write two more books after the show is created. “People think I’m depressed because I constantly point out what’s wrong with the system. For me, despair is not an option. Bringing light through the darkness in the cavern is our job, as artists.”

In his book, as in his own words, one word always comes back to him. This word is freedom. Can one be totally and radically free? Our freedom stops where that of others begins, it is said.

“Of course not,” replies the artist. As humans, we are completely dependent. However, we must choose our dependencies. Currently, we are dependent on an economic system that exploits us and does not love us. We must be dependent on the people we love and who love us.

– More concretely ?

— Your community. Your family, your friends, your neighborhood. It doesn’t matter. To me, that’s what freedom is.”

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