After twenty years of career, after having signed nearly forty productions, for his company, the Théâtre de la Marée haute, but also for the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, the Cirque Éloize and the Opéra de Montréal, among others, Michel-Maxime Legault dares a first text: MichelinAs if the gesture were not already courageous enough in itself, the play is an autobiographical monologue that addresses delicate subjects and which the man of the theatre himself performs.
“It all started in 2021,” Legault explains. “Marcelle Dubois, the director of Jamais lu, had asked me to write a short monologue for the Paris edition of the festival. After a few days of wondering what I was going to talk about, I thought I’d tell them that I almost called myself Michelin. Before I could tell you, I had thirty pages!”
The youngest of seven children, Michel-Maxime Legault was born in 1982 in Saint-Polycarpe, in Montérégie. After Guylaine, Sylvain, Chantal, Denise and Steve, the parents, Yvon and Micheline, decided to give their last two children their own first names. “My brother inherited the name Yvon,” explains Legault. “And I disrupted the family plan by being born a boy. The plan to call me Micheline was falling apart for my parents, who had just finished their copulation. They quickly resolved the problem without much thought by calling me… Michelin.” Fortunately, Chantal, “the schizophrenic sister who had all her wits about her,” prevented the disaster by saying: “Come on, it’s not a tire.” That’s how Michel-Maxime avoided the worst.
Playful and hypersensitive
After the public reading at the Festival du Jamais lu in 2022, many spectators were enthusiastic and some producers expressed their interest. Two years later, the book was published by Éditions du Quartz and the production was directed by Marie-Thérèse Fortin (who met Legault while being directed by him in the show Verdict) is finally presented in Montreal, at the Fred-Barry hall of the Denise-Pelletier theater, after having been presented around fifty times in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Quebec.
“I made sure that Michel-Maxime appeared in all his complexity,” explains the director. “We know his verve, his mischievous side, but he also has a more secret side, a depth, a gentleness and even a hypersensitivity that I wanted to bring to life on stage.”
The theatre woman, who was born and raised on a dairy farm in Saint-Octave-de-Métis, in Gaspésie, admits that she was very touched by the relationship that the author and actor has with his parents. “I was impressed by their understanding, by their openness, by the way they were able to overcome their preconceptions, in short by the path they have taken thanks to their son.” To “meet” part of the endearing Legault clan, we highly recommend that you go to the TDP website to watch At the heart of Michelintwo video capsules of around fifteen minutes each, magnificently produced by Eliot Laprise.
In just over an hour, Michel-Maxime Legault, engaged in a sort of stand-up which makes you laugh out loud, then the next moment forces you to hold back a sob, masterfully tackles a host of subjects: identity, mental health, social class, masculinity, homosexuality, theatre, piano, parentage and animal mourning. There is a bit of scathing humour, certainly, but also wisdom in this monologue. Legault shows that we all have the right to happiness and that we sometimes have to disobey injunctions to be happy. “All this came to me quite spontaneously,” explains the man who “got into culture to escape agriculture”. I wrote by letting my instinct guide me. What I knew was that I wanted to get away from complacency, to just talk to another human being. My story is no more important than anyone else’s, but it’s my story, that of a 40-year-old guy who no longer has time for secrets. So much the better if it inspires people.”
“It’s a confession,” explains Fortin, “but one that is never motivated by recrimination. It is first and foremost an affirmation of oneself. The challenge was to find a common thread to connect all these memories, all these vignettes. That’s why I quickly wanted to add an eloquent space, where video projections occupy an important place, just like the objects that Michel-Maxime manipulates.” Let’s take this opportunity to mention Jonas Veroff Bouchard, who designs the scenography, Églantine Mailly, the costumes and accessories, Lyne Rioux, the lighting, Carl Matthieu Neher, the music, Eliot Laprise, the video, and Fabien Piché, the movement.
At one point, the character asks this crucial question: “But where are you going when your name was supposed to be Michelin, when you’re not taking over the family farm, when you have a degree in acting from the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec and you won’t have thoroughbred children?” It’s then time to invent yourself, to build yourself, to walk alone towards your destiny, but without ever forgetting where you come from. “As I get older,” explains Legault, “I realize that there is a big part of Michelin in me. I’m more and more at peace with that. I would even say that I’m proud of this pragmatic, resilient, hard-working side. It’s part of me, whether I like it or not.”