Catherine Vidal

Mountaineer of the human condition

With her company, aptly named Cœur battant (“beating heart”), Catherine Vidal explores the vagaries of the human condition. The choices and actions of members of her species are the basis of her creative process, which translates to the stage as highly physical performance. The stage adaptation (2009) of Agota Kristof’s Le grand cahier (The Notebook) marked the significant start of her practice.

She has collaborated with Quebec author Étienne Lepage on several projects: Robin et Marion, L’idiot (based on the novel by Dostoyevsky) and Le cœur en hiver, a puppet theatre adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen (Louise-Lahaye Prize). Eager to explore major works of contemporary world theatre, she has taken on the writings of Scottish playwright David Harrower (Des couteaux dans les poules [Knives in Hens], for which she received the 2013 award for best direction in Montréal from the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre), Austrian Thomas Bernhard (Avant la retraite [Eve of Retirement]), Norwegian Arne Lygre (Je disparais [I Disappear]), Italian Stefano Massini (Chapitres de la chute – Saga des Lehman brothers [The Lehman Trilogy], co-directed with Marc Beaupré), Italian Carlo Goldoni (Les amoureux [The Lovers]), and American Katori Hall (Au sommet de la montagne [The Mountaintop]).

In 2016, she was the second recipient of the Jean-Pierre Ronfard Scholarship and, in 2020, the inaugural recipient of the Josette-Marchessault Prize, which recognizes the contribution of women theatre artists. She is also a professor at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal.

Productions directed by Catherine Vidal and presented at the NAC:

• November 2017: Je disparais, by Arne Lygre
• January 2016: Le cœur en hiver, by Étienne Lepage, adapted from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen
• March 2015: S’appartenir (e), an all-female theatrical and literary event
• December 2012: Le grand cahier (The Notebook), adapted from the novel by Agota Kristof