It won’t be the first time that Céline Bonnier will have had an orgasm in public: four years ago the actress was in the cast of I No Longer Know Who I Am <literal translation>, a hard-hitting play that brings seven angry women together. During the performance, Bonnier did a very long and noisy masturbation scene which got a lot of press coverage.

Are these two plays feminist works?
“Yes. Because they’re provocative,” she replies straightaway, and immediately has doubts about her answer. After reflection she tones it down: no, a feminist work doesn’t necessarily have to be provocative. “But to be able to change things you need to provoke,” concludes Céline Bonnier, recalling theatre plays which were labelled as feminist. They were all rather disturbing. According to her, there are women’s works and feminist works. Those in the second category clearly show a willingness to go into murkier water. “They go where men can’t,” she thinks.

Nothing is simple in the subject of feminism. Céline Bonnier maintains that it’s even more complicated when the concept is applied to the artistic domain where the men are particularly close to their emotions, are particularly keen to develop a plan in order to internalise it, and that’s a feminine trait.
“The language of women is, biologically, different to men’s,” she explains. “For a man, it’s easier to externalise. To forge ahead, to conquer the outside world. The woman internalises things. She will sit on a plan, think about it. But externalising it is more difficult.”

As gifted as she is unassuming, Céline Bonnier has an impressive work history. She played the whore in the TV series Blanche, the dancer in the film The Sphinx, the woman-child in Dominic Champagne’s stage musical Lolita, and drug-addict mothers both on the screen in the series Tag and on stage in Problem Child. As well as pleasure seekers, first in I No Longer Know Who I Am (where she also peed standing up ….) and in The Vagina Monologues the day after tomorrow.

Does this make her a feminist actress?
Céline Bonnier thinks about it. Yes, she has always been swayed by the language of women. Yes, the works of women touch her and interest her particularly. “They interest me just because you see fewer of them,” she says.

When she receives scripts written by women she pays particular attention to them. But she hesitates to call herself a feminist. “In the way that I understand the term feminist, it’s too radical for me. On the other hand, it’s through radical things that you make progress.” And she launches into a speech about the need to carry on, to continue to support women’s projects, and feminists, for there’s still a long way to go.
“People are still scared of feminism today. Things have progressed. Certainly things have progressed, but it’s still important to give free rein to female expression because women are still caged in.”

Céline Bonnier was to be involved in a film by Paule Baillargeon. But the film won’t be made because the director can’t find the finance. According to the actress, her girls’ story was a bit too feminist for those rather conservative institutions.

“We managed to do a play like I No Longer Know Who I Am because we didn’t ask anyone for money,” says the actress who doubts if the same project could have been done for cinema. Or worse, for TV. “In the most populist media, those sorts of things don’t happen,” she says.

That leaves the theatre. For the past decade many women have directed for the stage. There was Michelle Rossignol at the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui and Brigitte Haentjens at the NCT. There is Lorraine Pintal at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Marie-Thérèse Fortin at the Trident, Ginette Noiseux at Espace Go. According to Céline Bonnier, the attainment of women to management posts in the theatre has barely changed what is presented on stage in terms of the choice of works. At the TNM, once you choose a Molière or a Shakespeare, there’s less space left for a play written by a woman. And there aren’t many of them in repertory theatre. On the other hand, these female managers surround themselves more so with women. Stage directors, for example. Céline Bonnier names Martine Beauline and Alice Ronfard, women who inevitably present a female, perhaps even feminist, view of male works.

The day after tomorrow, it’s the turn of the women. The Vagina Monologues, a work by the American feminist Eve Ensler, is presented on behalf of the V-Day movement which works to stop violence perpetrated against women. Céline Bonnier is right now rehearsing her monologue. She surprises us with her interpretation of the orgasm on the mountain top, which sounds, apparently, like yodelling.

4 questions to Céline Bonnier

Q: What does the 8th of March mean to you?
A: I never prepare myself specially for this day, but when it arrives I always think about it. It represents female solidarity. Or the lack of female solidarity ….

Q: What is your greatest wish for the women of Quebec?
A: That they find their own truth. That they succeed in getting where they want to go without having to make too many compromises.

Q: Who is the woman who inspires you most?
A: George Sand. For her passion and her excesses. Because she tried to be a feminist in her own way, to go where she wanted to go. And Brigitte Haentjens. And Diane Dufresne. And my mother too.

Q: Who is the man who inspires you most?
A: Gaudi. For his humility and his excesses. Because he took what was at hand and made incredible shapes. And Dali too, who was precise and chaotic at the same time. He was crazy.

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