When we play, we’re always 20 years old. And these days, veteran actor Yves Jacques is immersed in a project that reminds him of his beginnings at the Vieux-Théâtre de Québec, with Rémy Girard, in the late 1970s.
“The pleasure is working with younger people,” says the 67-year-old actor. I remember older performers, like Albert Millaire or Gérard Poirier. In their sixties, they deplored the fact that the phone never rang, without daring to go see the younger people’s shows or ask them to work with them. It was another era. »
In his case, his meeting with Quesnel, 25 years his junior, took place – with a strong dose of humor and madness – during the filming of the film From father to cop 2, in 2016. “Yves fell in love with Mathieu on set,” confides filmmaker Émile Gaudreault. Mathieu is a free electron. I think he awakened Yves’ madness, which was a little dormant… The desire to create, to take risks, to put oneself in danger. »
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Mathieu Quesnel
We were predestined to become friends. We agree on several levels. We like the same things in art, works halfway between comedy and drama. We are passionate about music. We are very serious in our nonsense. In addition, Yves has a very young heart. There is never any question of age difference between us.
Mathieu Quesnel
A quirky comedy
With Sister donkeys, Mathieu Quesnel offers an intimate play that he directs himself. A quirky comedy that tells the story of two men who decide to become roommates 10 minutes after meeting! And who will try to overcome anxiety and loneliness in their own way.
Yves Jacques loves his friend’s way of writing, where comic situations combine with everyday truth. “I like to say that Mathieu is Claude Meunier’s little brother, in his tragicomic look at life and ordinary people. »
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Yves Jacques: “The pleasure is working with younger people. »
“I like when the personal joins the timeless, the universal,” says the author. The character of Yves is 70 years old. He is a worthy representative of boomers and their contradictions. Mine is 35 years old, halfway between X and Y.”
“Seriousness in casualness”, said Robert Gravel, a motto which fits perfectly with the spirit of the duo of Sister Donkeys. The two actors are playing together for the first time, although Jacques was part of I am mixed and of Tripunder the direction of Quesnel.
A young heart
During the tour of I am mixedin fact, Yves Jacques was filmed by his comrades in a bar in Jonquière singing Purple Rain in a moment of pure delight. “The gang made me take magic mushrooms after the show,” he said. I was pretty excited… What wouldn’t we do for the tour? »
A young heart, you said?
At Espace libre from February 20 to March 2. The show is already almost sold out. Consult the Espace libre website for additional information and the waiting list.
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Pirate project in May
At the end of the pandemic, Mathieu Quesnel toyed with the idea of founding a theater with flexible programming, Le Pirate. “I imagine a den of the industry, both laboratory and hybrid springboard, to allow actors to test artistic forms,” he confided to The Press in 2022. Since then, he has put the search for a new venue on ice, but not the idea of experimenting on stage with versatile artists. Next May, his Pirate Project will bring together several creators of the performing arts during an event that will be as festive as it is crazy. “A cross between The Mondays of Ha! Ha!Black Snow Cabaret and The Night of Poetry », promises its instigator. The list of artists is not complete, but Yves Jacques will of course be there. In music, in play and perhaps in pantomime… like in the days of the Vieux-Théâtre de Québec.
At the Little Unicorn, from May 2 to 11