At the end of a very popular Montreal premiere of the show “I don’t know how, I don’t know why”, in which she pays a sincere and moving tribute to Yvon Deschamps, presented on Friday at the Maisonneuve theater at Place des Arts , Guylaine Tremblay received congratulations from the humor pioneer.
Yvon Deschamps even sprained his public retirement to attend this show. “I am totally overwhelmed, he confided at the end of the evening. That’s a lot of love and a lot of memories. It wakes up my whole life. Every bit of a song, I remember where I was when I wrote it. In addition, being here in Maisonneuve where I have played more than 500 times, it stirs a lot. Yvon Deschamps also said he was turned upside down by the love that Guylaine Tremblay has had for him for so long. “It’s pretty amazing, I’m speechless.”
In its own way
Guylaine Tremblay built her show like an autobiography crossed with the songs of Yvon Deschamps. “He is like a teacher who looks at us with an eye that is as sensitive as it is mocking, she announces at the start of the show. I also want to share my love for Yvon Deschamps, my admiration for the beautiful and sensitive songs he wrote, while telling you a little about me.
To begin, she evokes her childhood in Charlevoix, tells anecdotes, stages the colorful characters of her family, and describes with tenderness the love letter she sent to Yvon at the age of eight, a sequence punctuated by songs like “Life”, “Happiness” or “Yesterday”.
Surrounded by four musicians (Jean-Fernand Girard on piano, Michael Pucci on guitar, Patricia Deslauriers on bass and double bass, and Francis Covan on violin and accordion), Guylaine Tremblay does not take herself for a singer, but she perfectly defends the texts she has chosen to perform. We already knew that she was able to push the note, we could appreciate it in the past, especially in “Belles-Sœurs”.
She then talks at length about her grandmother, with whom she shared the same room for years. After the departure of her last son, the latter suffered from depression. One evening, while watching Yvon Deschamps’ show on TV, she then saw her grandmother crying with laughter. Guylaine believed for a long time that Yvon had saved him from his sadness.
Later, she talks about her meeting with Robert Lepage, her incredible audition for the Quebec Conservatory, her love for Donald Lautrec or her deep desire to be useful in life. Each slice of life is an excuse to make the public laugh or move, and to introduce songs like “Love when you’re there” or “You boast”.
laugh or cry
Guylaine Tremblay recalls that Yvon Deschamps “taught us to love each other, to laugh at ourselves, to go easily from laughter to tears and, lately, he also taught us to be old.”
She continues with a series of anecdotes about the funny funerals of several members of her family. “Laugh so as not to cry”, she concludes before singing the popular “Aimons-nous”, a song which remains very current.
It also allows us to revisit songs that have remained in everyone’s memories like “Les buttocks”, and others a little forgotten, like the touching “Oublions” and “Papa”.
Even if she sings about fifteen songs during the evening, Guylaine Tremblay once again demonstrates that she is above all a formidable actress, coupled with a real comic talent for telling stories.
Guylaine Tremblay is still on tour with her show “I don’t know how, I don’t know why” until the end of fall.
