When Lorraine Pintal took over the direction of the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) in 1992, the institution was drowning in debt and had just come close to closing down following a long labor dispute. More than three decades later, the director is bowing out after putting the house in order. The institution is firmly established. But the road to stability has been strewn with pitfalls.
In 32 years at the helm of this Montreal gem, Lorraine Pintal has experienced moments of joy and crises that have made her question her commitment. But she has stayed the course.
“We had some very exciting years thanks to a golden team. We shook things up. And I’m leaving thinking that the future is bright,” says the 72-year-old future retiree, whom we met in a café in the Quartier des spectacles, a stone’s throw from the TNM.
The interview couldn’t be done at the theatre: the electricity had been cut off that day due to the $35 million renovations that are still underway. She is hopeful that the work, delayed by the pandemic, will be completed by the end of the year. The new Réjean-Ducharme hall, dedicated to emerging artists, will be added to the existing (and renovated) 800-seat hall.
On that, I was late. We had no choice but to make room for diversity. The demographic portrait of Montreal has evolved.
This is the second major project undertaken under her reign, after the restoration work of the late 1990s. At the same time, she led five artistic “projects”, which she also describes as cycles: she celebrated Greek and then Quebec theatre, she made room for women, she took the TNM’s programming abroad. The other project, and not the least, gave her a hard time: she opened the doors of her theatre to cultural diversity.
“I was late on that,” she admits bluntly. “We had no choice but to make room for diversity. The demographic profile of Montreal has evolved.”
Voices to embody
We remember that two controversies that broke out in 2018, both associated with Robert Lepage, prompted her to take this turn. First, there was SLAVproduced by the Montreal International Jazz Festival, which recalled the trauma of slavery, but without the contribution of black communities.
Then the show Kanata suffered the same fate — cancellation, this time because this reinterpretation of historical relations between whites and indigenous peoples did not feature any actors from the First Nations.
In both cases, Lorraine Pintal had defended tooth and nail the freedom of expression of creators, but in hindsight, she recognizes that the theater had to open up to diversity. These episodes “changed mentalities. We had to question ourselves to see how we work on inclusion, sharing and dialogue between cultures.”
The TNM presented this year My name is Mohamed Aliby Dieudonné Niangouna, directed by Philippe Racine and Tatiana Zinga Botao, which takes a diverse look at relations with the white majority in Quebec. And a play of Innu origin is on the program for the next season: the adaptation of the novel Kukumby Michel Jean, by Laure Morali and Joséphine Bacon, directed by Émilie Monnet.
The shock of women
Seven years earlier, in 2011, another storm had shaken the columns of the TNM. For its trilogy WomenWajdi Mouawad had called on the singer Bertrand Cantat, who had just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the murder of his partner Marie Trintignant. Here again, Lorraine Pintal had defended the director’s freedom to make this “daring” choice: Cantat’s character denounced violence against women.
She is not bitter toward Mouawad, but remembers having a very bad time. “I was left to my own devices. Wajdi kind of withdrew into a disturbing silence. He didn’t want to defend his choices anymore.”
“I was called all sorts of names. It was very hard. I almost left,” says the outgoing director of the TNM.
The show had been cancelled. Lorraine Pintal engaged in a “deep reflection on her artistic practice”. A little over a decade later, she believes that the controversies “convinced her to stay at the TNM”.
“We had to make up for lost time to give women a place,” she says. Female creators (in writing, acting and directing) have taken the stage — she names in no particular order Nancy Houston, Sarah Berthiaume, Sylvie Drapeau, Fanny Britt, Alexia Bürger, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette.
Large-scale pieces such as Lysispresented in May, or The woman who runs awayon show this fall, are supported by considerable resources. And this is no coincidence, emphasizes Lorraine Pintal.
Future project
When she arrived at the TNM, the director chose to highlight the Greek classics, in particular The Trojan Womenby Euripides. She also remembers with emotion The Odyssey from Homer adapted by Dominic Champagne and Alexis Martin, one of the greatest successes in the history of the TNM.
Quebec classics have also been a staple of the Theatre. No fewer than seven creations by Michel Marc Bouchard, and probably as many by Michel Tremblay, have been presented in the last 30 years, recalls Lorraine Pintal.
The board of directors is looking for two managers to replace the outgoing director. The position will be split into two: administrative direction and artistic direction. Lorraine Pintal believes that this is a wise decision. “With the pandemic and the renovations, I have been crushed by administrative decisions in recent years. This is one of the reasons why I am going to leave,” she admits.
She will stay at the TNM until the end of the year to ensure the transition. The retirement may be short-lived, because she admits to considering trying her luck in politics again. A candidate for Pauline Marois’ Parti Québécois in 2014, Lorraine Pintal was defeated in the Verdun riding. “Maybe we’ll see each other again!” she says with a laugh.