Martin Drainville

Martin Drainville, actor (born 21 August 1964 in Repentigny, Québec). Right after graduating from the theatre program at Collège Lionel-Groulx in Sainte-Thérèse, Québec in 1987, Martin Drainville snagged the leading role in a French-language stage production of Sue Townsend’s novel The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, directed by Rémy Girard at Montréal’s Théâtre Denise-Pelletier. In 1988, audiences got to appreciate Drainville’s talent both in a dramatic role in Normand Chaurette’s Fragments d'une lettre d'adieu lus par des géologues at Montréal’s Théâtre de Quat'Sous and in a comic role in Molière’s classic Le malade imaginaire, directed by André Montmorency, at Montréal’s Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. In the latter, Drainville and Jean-Louis Roux gave unusual performances, portraying Doctor Thomas Diafoirus and his father as a grotesque creature with two heads.

With his boyish physique and innocent face, Drainville has given many memorable performances as children and adolescents. After his appearance as Adrian Mole, he played children’s roles in Odette Guimond and Jacques Rossi’s stage adaptations of two novels by Hungarian author Agota Kristof: Le Grand Cahier (The Notebook) in 1989 and La Preuve (The Proof) in 1990, both at the Théâtre de la Nouvelle Lune. In 1991, Lorraine Pintal directed him in two roles. In the first, he was unforgettably paired as Inat to Pascale Montpetit’s Ines in Réjean Ducharme‘s Ines Pérée et Inat Tendu, at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. In the second, Drainville played the fragile young mental patient Billy Bibbit in the Compagnie Jean-Duceppe’s French-language production of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in Montréal. In 1993, Drainville explored the world of mental illness again in a French-language production of Tom Griffin’s The Boys Next Door, directed by Jean-Denis Leduc; it opened at Montréal’s Théâtre La Licorne, then had a run at the Théâtre du Gésu, and subsequently toured Québec.

Drainville was directed by Dominic Champagne in Lolita at Montréal’s Théâtre Il va sans dire in 1995 and in Christian Bégin’s Circus minimus at the Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui in 2004. In the latter play, Bégin and Drainville played a clown and a human cannonball, respectively. Drainville, usually more sought after for comic roles, took advantage of this opportunity to explore more serious themes, in a moving, melancholy performance. He also appeared with the Compagnie Jean-Duceppe in two plays by Claude Meunier and Louis Saïa--Les Voisins in 2001 and Appelez-moi Stéphane in 2005, as well as in Les Noces de tôle, by Meunier alone, in 2003. All three shows were directed by Denis Bouchard, experienced great success, and had revivals. Since 1990, Drainville has performed frequently at the Théâtre des Grands Chênes, in Kingsey Falls, Québec, notably in two plays by Sophie Clément and Marcel Lebœuf: Zaza d'abord in 1996 and Le Génie amoureux in 1997, for which he won a Masque Audience Choice Award in 1998. A brilliant verbal acrobat, Drainville also became a star player in Québec’s Ligue Nationale d'Improvisation (National Improvisational Comedy League), in which he won several prizes over the years 1989 to 1992.

Film directors have taken good advantage of Drainville’s natural comic talents. Michel Poulette gave him the title role as the naïve reality TV star in Louis 19, le roi des ondes (1994), and Denise Filiatrault directed him in C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux (1998) and L'Odyssée d'Alice Tremblay (2002).

Drainville has also been an audience favourite in his frequent television appearances. He appeared on the comedy show Samedi PM from 1989 to 1992. From 1991 to 1994, he acted in the series Scoop, earning a Gémeaux award for his role as a young reporter nicknamed Tintin, after the young reporter hero of the famous Belgian comic books. Drainville also appeared in the television series Le Petit Monde de Laura Cadieux (2003-2007), inspired, like the film before it, by the world of renowned Québec playwright Michel Tremblay.