Theatre: director André Brassard has passed away

One of the greatest directors in the history of Quebec, André Brassard, died Tuesday evening at the age of 76, confirmed the Duceppe theater.

The director, who brought the play into theaters with the complicity of playwright Michel Tremblay, died following a long illness, after several weeks of hospitalization.

Barely 22 years old, André Brassard directed the play The Sisters-in-Law by Michel Tremblay, presented at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert in 1968. The presentation of this work, in a popular language, had the effect of a bombshell in the artistic milieu, shaking up the theater codes of the time.

Throughout the four decades that followed, André Brassard directed dozens of plays and held various roles, notably as Francophone artistic director at the National Theater School of Canada in Montreal, but above all remained faithful to the works by Michel Tremblay, which he continued to adapt for the theater and even for the cinema, from the 70s to the 2000s.

The director had been slowed down by a stroke in 1999, but was still able to continue practicing his profession in the following years.

André Brassard has received several honors during his career, including the Denise-Pelletier Prize in 2020. He was named Compagnon de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec in 2021.