reviewed by Paula Citron
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Trudeau Stories
A Festival of Four Plays
Written and performed by Brooke Johnson
Directed by Allyson McMackon
At Theatre Passe Muraille until Dec. 6
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Pierre Trudeau continues to be a source of endless fascination, and in Brooke Johnson’s Trudeau Stories, we get an intriguing look at the private man.
Johnson was a student at Montreal’s National Theatre School when she met the former prime minister at a gala function in 1985. The two began a platonic friendship that lasted until his death in 2000.
The solo show is taken mostly from Johnson’s diaries and letters, and director Allyson McMackon has kept the stage business fairly busy to keep a lively pace. In Johnson’s play we meet the erudite man who quoted poetry, and the physical man who climbed mountains. When Johnson quotes Trudeau’s words, she does manage a hint of his famous cadence.
She does give us back Trudeau, albeit briefly, and in her intense acting, we sense the sincere warmth the two shared. In a way, Trudeau Stories is grieving for a lost friend.
Trudeau Stories continues at Theatre Passe Muraille until Dec. 6.