Article

Marc Béland

Published Online April 23, 2007

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Marc Béland, actor, dancer, director (b at Montréal 15 Mar 1958). One of the best actors of his generation, this intense and luminous artist also gave spirited performances for five years as a dancer with Édouard LOCK's company, La La La Human Steps, with whom he toured the world.

Béland, Marc

Marc Béland, actor, dancer, director (b at Montréal 15 Mar 1958). One of the best actors of his generation, this intense and luminous artist also gave spirited performances for five years as a dancer with Édouard LOCK's company, La La La Human Steps, with whom he toured the world. Trained in acting at Collège Lionel-Groulx (1978), he launched his career at the age of 20 and immediately earned rave reviews. He distinguished himself in the title role of Victor ou les enfants au pouvoir (THÉÂTRE DU NOUVEAU MONDE, 1980) directed by Jean-Pierre RONFARD, tackled major roles as Gregor Samsa in Kafka's la Métamorphose (Théâtre de Quat'Sous, 1980), and Saint-Éxupéry's le Petit Prince, and premiered in Michel Marc Bouchard's play (la Contre-Nature de Chrysippe Tanguay, écologiste, Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui, 1983) directed by André BRASSARD.

An artist with integrity, passionate about art rather than success, he interrupted this beginning of a dazzling career to commit himself to dancing. From 1984 to 1989, he took part in Lock's creations - Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel, Human Sex, New Demons/La Belle et la Bête - and the ensuing international success culminated at Seoul Olympics (1988), where in the opening spectacle, he and David Bowie danced a choreography by Nam June Palk that was broadcast live around the world.

Beland's return to theatre was marked by the revival of René-Daniel Dubois' Being at Home With Claude (THÉÂTRE DU RIDEAU VERT, 1988) and Shakespeare's Hamlet (TNM, 1990), a character he would again rub shoulders with in Heiner Müller's cutting-edge Hamlet-Machine (2001), directed by Brigitte Haentjens. With her Beland had his greatest artistic successes in Camus' Caligula (Nouvelle Compagnie Théâtra, 1993, critic's prize for best male performance) and Müller's Quartett (Espace GO, 1996). He took part in the 90s cult show, the provocative Cabaret Neiges Noires (Théâtre Il va sans dire, 1992) directed by Dominic Champagne.

Marc Beland repeatedly won critical and public acclaim in forty plays by Claudel (l'Échange), Racine (Bérénice), Sophocles, Chekhov (la Mouette), Goldoni, Brecht, Pirandello, Dostoïevski, Schmitt (le Visiteur), Tremblay and Chaurette (le Passage de l'Indiana). He triumphed again in l'Asile de la pureté by Claude Gauvreau (TNM, 2004, directed by Lorraine PINTAL), and won the Masque for (best) male performance and the Prix Gascon-Roux. He premiered the theatre version of Wajdi Mouawad's novel Visage retrouvé (Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui, 2006) and directed Yvan Bienvenue's Règlement de contes (1995), Dévoilement devant notaire (2002) and Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf's la Petite Scrap (2005).

He appeared on television in Ces enfants d'ailleurs, Fortier, l'Héritière de Grande Ourse, le Négociateur, and Annie et ses hommes (Prix Gémeaux 2004 - best male supporting role), and in film in Robert Ménard's la Beauté des femmes, Patrice Leconte's la Veuve de Saint-Pierre and Denise FILIATRAULT's l'Odyssée d'Alice Tremblay.