November 20, 2006 -

“I’ll never be more than a mere poetic bug, a fragment of poetry.”
– Gaston Miron

L’Âge de la parole, the National Arts Centre (NAC) French Theatre’s 2006–07 series of Spectacles-midi (lunchtime readings with music), is devoted to the work of four great post-war Quebec poets: Roland Giguère, Gaston Miron, Anne Hébert and Paul-Marie Lapointe. On Tuesday, November 21 and Wednesday, November 22, Gaston Miron (1928–1996) will be in the spotlight, with readings of excerpts from his anthology L’Homme rapaillé, acknowledged today as a groundbreaking icon of Quebec poetry. The reading will be performed by actor Carol Beaudry, directed by Tibor Egervari and accompanied by pianist Jean Desmarais playing a selection of “progressive piano studies” from Mikrokosmos by Béla Bartók (1881–1945).

Gaston Miron approaches poetry “like a draught horse,” sometimes stricken and anxious, sometimes stumbling towards love, murmuring harmonies. Miron’s life and work played a key role in the blossoming of Quebec culture over the last half-century. To this day he is regarded as Quebec’s greatest contemporary poet, acclaimed for the universal appeal, power and intensity of his investigation of the tension between the individual and society. His “La Marche à l’amour” (“The March to Love”) remains one of the most beautiful poems ever written in French-speaking North America.

About the poet: Gaston Miron

Gaston Miron attended primary and secondary school and college (École normale) with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, a teaching and missionary order. He studied social sciences at the Université de Montréal (1947–1950), and in 1953 co-founded Éditions de l’Hexagone, a publishing house that would play an important part in disseminating the work of Quebec poets. He spent several months in Paris (1959–60), where he took publishing courses at the École Estienne, a leading art and design school. On his return to Quebec he worked for the publisher Formac Ltée/HMH until 1965, when he decided to devote himself full-time to writing and to managing Hexagone. He taught literature at the National Theatre School of Canada (1973–78) and was associated with the publisher Éditions Leméac (1972–80). In 1993 he returned to publishing to take over production of the “Typo” series he had launched ten years earlier at Hexagone.

From 1954 on, Gaston Miron painstakingly crafted long series of poems: La Vie agonique, La Marche à l’amour, and La Batèche. Between 1962 and 1967, he published excerpts from these great poetic cycles in various newspapers and periodicals: Amérique française, Le Devoir, Parti Pris, Maintenant, Estuaire, and Liberté (which he helped to found). His work was not anthologized until 1970, in L’Homme rapaillé, which had a huge literary and social impact.

L’Homme rapaillé won the 1970 Prix Québec-Paris and the Prix de la revue Études françaises, and the 1972 Prix Canada-Belgique and the City of Montreal Arts Award. In 1977, Miron received the Prix Duvernay for his lifetime body of work, and when L’Homme rapaillé was published in France in 1971, this leading Quebec poet added the Prix Apollinaire to his many honours. Other awards include the Prix Athanase-David (1983), the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize (1985), the Médaille de l’Académie des lettres du Québec (1990), the Prix international de la paix (1993), and Radio-Québec’s Plaisir de lire Signet d’Or (1993). Also in 1993, Gaston Miron was appointed Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres de la République française.

An artist of unwavering conviction, keenly attuned to the work of his fellow poets, Gaston Miron almost single-handedly secured the rightful place of Quebec poetry as a strong voice in the stream of civic dialogue. Prodigiously open-minded, he was a master and combining specific words for maximum collective impact without ever sacrificing their individual value.

L’Âge de la parole: Gaston Miron
Poems by Gaston Miron • Read by Carol Beaudry • Directed by Tibor Egervari
Music by Béla Bartók • Music selection and piano accompaniment by Jean Desmarais
Artistic coordination by Paul Lefebvre • Stage management by Dalelle Mensour
Presented by the National Arts Centre French Theatre
in association with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Fourth Stage

November 21 and 22, 2006 from 12:00 to 13:00
National Arts Centre / Fourth Stage
53 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario

Tickets: Regular $16, Student $8
On sale in person at the NAC Box Office (no service charges) or through Ticketmaster (at all Ticketmaster outlets or by ‘phone, 613-755-1111) or online at www.nac-cna.ca

The NAC French Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of Radio-Canada La Première Chaîne 90.7 FM, media partner for the Spectacles-midi reading series.

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For more information, please contact:
Guy Warin, Communications & Media Relations Officer
French Theatre – Canada’s National Arts Centre
(613) 947-7000 or 1 866 850-2787, ext. 759
gwarin@nac-cna.ca