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 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?

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.”

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 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.

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”.

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. »

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. »

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