(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 feels sorry for the journalist. She set the meeting on a terrace near her home, chemin de la Canardière, in the Limoilou district of Quebec. 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 more than 10,000 copies, the ex-MP recounts the whirlwind of her life at the National Assembly; “a poor, musty political theater where the light never entered,” she wrote. “Catherine experienced heartbreak with politics. This is what emerges from his book,” says his 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?
My goal was not to change the institution from the inside. But to use the tools and resources of Parliament, the People’s House, to bring politics closer to the citizens’ movements. And it worked well on the ground.
Catherine Dorion
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 giving up before. Thanks to the support of the citizens.”
PHOTO FRANCIS VACHON, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Former solidarity MP Catherine Dorion chats with journalist Luc Boulanger, on the terrace of Brasserie La Souche, in Quebec.
Contempt for elites
During her term as Member of Parliament for Taschereau, Ms.me Dorion has always proudly claimed his status as an artist. How are artists like her received at the Salon bleu? “The political environment is diverse. Not everyone was against me. I believe that we have as much our place in the National Assembly as the doctors, lawyers, business people and entrepreneurs who sit there. And who all feel legitimate to adopt bills. »
In her view, the difficulty of recognizing artists’ expertise in Parliament goes beyond this iconic venue. “It illustrates how, in the circles of power, art is not important,” she says.
The search for meaning, emotion, creation, the elite in power considers that it is silly, childish, cloud-shoveling… I felt this contempt deep in my bones!
Catherine Dorion
The power of affect
PHOTO FRANCIS VACHON, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Catherine Dorion: “The Conservatory [d’art dramatique] radically transformed me! »
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.
He is told that this passage reminded us of the evening of November 15, 1976. While the victory of the PQ candidates at the Paul-Sauvé Center was announced by Denise Filliatrault, Pauline Julien, Doris Lussier… “Yes, all artists! », agrees Dorion.
“Nowadays, politics, especially on the left, is monopolized by people convinced that what matters is the rational, the Cartesian. But in reality, most people do not function 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 ex-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 buddy of the time, Nicola-Frank Vachon, the company Le soucide collectif (sic). And creates “scathing” shows, like Fuck all Or When the wise man points at the moon, the fool looks at the finger.The actress especially likes improvisation, farcical theatre, clowning. To find “this state of pure innocence, without going through the intellect”.
PHOTO FRANCIS VACHON, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Catherine Dorion: “In Quebec, there are more things that unite us than things that divide us. »
THE [jeu de] clown shows us how we feel in tenderness, joy, desire. To lead us to take care of each other. For me, it is both a social criticism and a key to breaking out of the current stasis.
Catherine Dorion
Catherine Dorion does not qualify as a “woman of the theater” however. She much prefers creation to repertoire. It’s not tomorrow that we’ll see her on the TNM stage as Lady Macbeth… Although she doesn’t close any doors.
The return of committed theatre
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. »
PHOTO FRANCIS VACHON, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Catherine Dorion is preparing a new theater show.
The power of art is to reconnect politics to the heart, to hope, to collective momentum.
Catherine Dorion
Catherine Dorion returns to theater for her next project, Science Po 101subtitle : Treatise on insubordination for the use of the real world. An “immersive and extraordinary” show that 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. Never mind. For me, that’s freedom. »
Summer questionnaire
What does your ideal summer look like?
A summer where nothing happens! A completely empty schedule! A long break from the obligatory schedules, like in my childhood summers, with days that improvise themselves as they go.
Books you want to read without fail this summer?
The condition of modern man, by Hannah Arendt ; Alexei Navalny: the man who defies Putin, of Jan Matti Dollbaum, Morvan Lallouet and Ben Noble ; Chimpanzee Politics, by Frans de Waal; and Love and revolution, by Johanna Silva.
A historical event that you would have liked to experience?
The Spanish Revolution of 1936. Summer 1969 at the Fisherman’s House in Percé. The election of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1970. The first election of the Parti Québécois in 1976.
If the National Assembly were a theater, would we be at the TNM, at the Diamant, at Duceppe?
In an improvisation game at the Cage aux sports, with some good moments and others that were a bit too long…
Who is Catherine Dorion?
- Born September 30, 1982 in Quebec
- Studied acting at the Conservatory of Dramatic Art of Quebec from 2001 to 2004.
- Performs in the show The NoShowon tour in Europe in 2015 and 2017.
- Was elected as a member of the Québec solidaire party in Taschereau in 2018.
- Announced that she was not running as a deputy on 1er April 2022.
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