Bru: “Sometimes you don’t feel like it and you go on stage”

Denis Levesque returns to the small screen with a series retracing the history of LCN, the continuous news channel celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023.

• Also Read: Logan Mailloux: “We regret that moment”

• Also Read: An unusual political career is due to her husband

• Also Read: Guy Turcotte: the photo that still haunts him today

This week, host Brew retraces the history of the play and meets new vintage Martin Drainville, along with Mark Messier, who played it for 38 years.

A model of tremendous success and longevity, Bru is considered the most famous play in the history of theater in Quebec. It has amassed more than three million viewers over the years and counting.

Marc Messier recalls Bru’s beginnings in a small theater on Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Actors Michel Côté, Marcel Gauthier and Marc Messier called on several writers to create a trio of sketches.

Two variables must be respected: it must not exceed 15 minutes and the sketch must be performed by three actors in a room with about sixty spectators.

“We were not even paid. There are 60 seats, but that’s our business. The unusual thing is that we are always producers of drama. At one point, we had a big hit,” says Mark Messier.

“It doesn’t seem to be as popular as it is. [À un moment donné], yes it paid off and gave us the flexibility that business doesn’t have. We always thought it would stop. Playing 100 times in Quebec is something that doesn’t exist,” asserts the actor.

They finally play Broue 3322 times.

“On the 100th we made t-shirts, we were so happy because we played 100 times, imagine! We played like mad because we always weighed the stoppage time!

In the early years, they staged the play over 200 times.

“Comedians struggle [jouer aussi souvent], imagine when it’s the three of us… You should be on the same wavelength, in a good mood, you should be together. It’s not easy.”

At some point the acting team realized that the less frequent the play, the longer it would be.

For Marc Messier, playing Brew was never a job, quite the opposite.

“Sometimes you don’t feel like it and you go on stage and there’s such enthusiasm from the audience that it transports you,” he recalls.

Brew’s rights were sold in Belgium, where the play ran for seven years. All three performed in English in the United States.