(Dieppe, NB – January 28,) – The great Acadian actress, Viola Léger, passed away today January 28 at the age of 92.
She had retired from public life in January 2017, after having suffered a stroke.
Born on June 29, 1930, Viola Léger was best known as an actress who made famous the character of La Sagouine, a play by Acadian author Maillet. She played this a role more than 3,000 times, garnering numerous rave reviews for her authentic and poignant interpretation.
Ms. Léger served in the Senate of Canada from 2001 to 2006 where she particularly emphasized the importance of artists in our society. Also, with a keen interest in the plight of minorities, she was a member of Senate committees for Aboriginal Peoples, and Official Languages and Social Affairs. She has been a fervent ambassador of Acadian culture, both in Canada and abroad.
After her initial studies in Acadie, Ms. Léger was able to realize her first passion: teaching. For 15 years, she taught literature and drama in high school, first at the Collège Notre-Dame-d’Acadie, then in Grand Falls, Moncton and Shediac. She obtained a master’s degree in Theatre Education from Boston University and trained in Paris with the renowned theater artist Jacques Lecoq. Her love for theater started during her time as a member of the Congregation Les Religieuses Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur. She has always been extremely grateful to the Congregation, who promoted her pursuit of higher education.
Throughout her acting career, she has performed more than 30 roles, including several characters created by Antonine Maillet, and has appeared in plays written by Michel Tremblay, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Tennessee Williams, and Tom Ziegler, among others. Her performance in Ziegler’s “Grace and Gloria” earned her the “Masque” for best actress in 2001, awarded by the Association des critiques de théâtre du Québec. She also adds to her credit roles in several films and television productions.
In 1985, she founded her own theater company, the Compagnie Viola Léger, which she directed until 2008. In 1999, she created the Viola Léger Foundation to encourage theatrical production and professional training in Acadie, mainly by granting scholarships to professional actors at the beginning of their careers. Ms. Léger cherished this Foundation, calling it a cornerstone in the development of new careers and consequently in the evolution of theater in Acadie.
Surprisingly, Ms. Léger became an actress “almost” by accident, thanks to Antonine Maillet who, before the launch of the book “La Sagouine” at the Université de Moncton, asked her to perform a few excerpts. The public was delighted and asked for a theatrical production. Thus, a legendary character was born, a humble Acadian housekeeper who recounts with intelligence, humor, and dignity a life of poverty, all the while revealing the injustices that surround her. Viola Léger performed the play “La Sagouine” for the very first time in 1971, and subsequently in the United States, France, and Belgium, in both French and English. Her performance earned her the Dora Mavor Moore Award, among others. From 1993 to 2016, she spent her summers at the Pays de la Sagouine, located in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, where she played her famous character.
Antonine Maillet mourns the death of Viola Léger: “She has always been one of my greatest friends, and certainly, the greatest actress that l’Acadie has ever known.”
Viola Léger was the recipient of numerous awards including the Order of Canada, the New Brunswick Excellence in the Arts Award, the Order of New Brunswick, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2013, the Prix Eloizes Hommage from the Association acadienne des artistes professionnel.le.s du Nouveau-Brunswick, and four honorary doctorates. In 2019, a school was named in her honour: the École élémentaire Viola-Léger, in Bowmanville, Ontario.
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