Solo by Mark Messier | Press

I have a video cassette of the play in my house Call me Stephen Claude Munier and Louis Chaia, a tele-theater film made in 1982 with the original cast, I must have seen ten times, it makes me laugh in parallel. Next door, Another primary piece of tandem. We see ordinary people trying out in the theater, considering an ordinary actor to be a master at the helm. Mark Messier played Jean-Hand, the guy who was more interested in becoming a clone of Yvon Deschamps than Vodville.

The character recalls that at that time Yvon Deschamps became an undeniable star, and he credited Mark Messier himself with the most famous comedian in Quebec. “We were all amazed to see Deschamps, Charleboys, Forrestier and Maffei Astitzo, He recalled. When I was 20, it was like the Beatles. They smoked Pot, They spoke Long Hair and Quebecois. There was a very strong rise of the Quebec identity at the time, and I was fully immersed in it. I was studying in theater school, we were working on Musett and Moliere, and suddenly Michael Tremble came and we saw on stage the people we could meet on the street. It was an exciting time. ”

“In the 1950s, I say on this show that there were only two egos in Quebec: Maurice Duplessis and Cardinal Leger. The Cubs did not believe in themselves as a people, it came later. When I was a kid everything was tight, the church dominated everything, everyone was different [rires], Monks and priests were gods, and suddenly, the world went down less and less to the masses. Like it happened on a weekend! ”

We sit down at the Chez Lévesque restaurant and for an hour and a half Mark Messier tries to explain to me what his first one man show of his life was. Only Mark Messier … on stage! The idea arose from a small monologue in the play Nine He is fully confident by the signing mani Solomonlow on the stage of his show, which was written during the epidemics on the advice of his best travel companion, Louis Chaia.

It’s about a man who discusses with his ego, he looks back on his life, talks about Quebec’s evolution, love and death, but Mark Messier considers it difficult to define. Is this ultimately the balance of his life?

“There’s a little bit of that,” he replied. Pierre Curzi came to see the show going on and told me that it was like an autobiography that he was playing with himself. I take my work seriously, but I don’t take myself too seriously. ”

There is every reason why Mark Messier has too much ego. He has participated in many wonderful productions that have left a lasting impression on the Quebec imagination. Lance and number, Pictures of Andre Forsier, The Little Life, Les Boys, And of course the indestructible piece Broue, He played with his friends Marcel Gauthier and Michael Cote more than 3000 times. In this industry, it is difficult to win when you touch big successes once or twice in your life. Also, Mark Messier shows the silence of a man who does not have to wait long for the phone to ring and has nothing to prove.

On such a journey, has his ego already deceived him? “It’s always hard to talk about you, but I will say that I have never had an ego through my education. Not necessarily because when things are bad, so is it. ”

Yet, at the age of 74, he chose solo adventure in a show he wrote himself, The Tricks That Come With It. Why didn’t he take the path of the autobiography as many stars do today?

Although he considers Broue Like a wonderful period in his life, this period will last 38 years because it is the biggest success in the history of Quebec theater. And in a way Broue Prevented him from exploring anything else on stage, he was very occupied in this room. He chose his plans for TV and cinema based on his busy schedule of always-selling shows. Also, during the chapter Broue Closed firmly by mutual agreement with his colleagues, he did not hesitate to accept the lead role Death of a salesman, Premiered by Serge Tenncourt at Theatre du Rido Verd in 2018, and received critical acclaim.

When you think about it, Mark Messier has spent most of his life as a trio on the boards, so today a person-show, perhaps, he is happy with the first reactions. “People feel like they’re finding me, I think, because of the characters I’m not playing much, it seems like there’s a lot of people who think I’m not CEGEP! Is far from one.

But Mark Messier may have reached a point where he wanted to explore his memory marked by advances in Quebec. “It simply came to our notice then. Fortunately, there was Bill 101, the unions, the Union des Artists, otherwise there would have been horrific abuses. But it no longer seems to interest the world. There are those who think it’s settled when they fight for the French language, but it’s a bit shocking that it does not. We have the idea that this will never be resolved and that we must never give up. ”

Only Mark Messier … on stage! Presented on November 23 and 24 and December 2 at Theater Outreach in Quebec and elsewhere.

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