Yvette Brind'Amour

Brind'Amour, Yvette

Yvette Brind'Amour, actor and theatre director (b at Montréal 1918; d there 1992). Trained as a dancer, she went to Paris after the World War II to study drama with René Simon and Charles Dullin. In 1948, when the Québéc theatre circle began to be professionally organized, Brind'Amour with her friend Mercédès Palomino founded the Theatre Du Rideau Vert, which she would direct until her death. It was dedicated to producing light French comedy and drama and in addition it presented children's theatre, featuring young writers, actors, and puppets in matinée performances that were well appreciated by this important target audience.

From its first season, Yvette Brind'Amour staged Lilian Hellman's Les Innocentes/The Children's Hour. The Rideau Vert quickly became an important hub for Montréal theatre, where one could find major talents such as Denise Pelletier, Gérard Poirier, Françoise Faucher, Monique Miller and Geneviève Bujold. Yvette Brind'Amour herself portrayed more than 200 roles during her career, notably in plays by Giraudoux, Pirandello, Guitry, Musset, Anouilh, Marivaux, Chekhov, Cocteau, and Montherland. With a keen ability for accuracy, she often feigned aloofness, a sign of modesty and reserve. Under her artistic direction, the Théâtre du Rideau Vert premiered Félix LeClerc's first play, Sonnez les matines, Antonine Maillet's La Sagouine, Marie-Claire Blais's L'Exécution, and particularly the pivotal work in contemporary Québécois playwriting - Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-sœurs (1968). Brind'Amour was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1967, and promoted to Companion in 1982. In 1985 she became an Officer in the Ordre national du Québec, and in 1987 was winner of the Prix Molson.