In 1985, while she was a student at the National Theatre School in Montreal, Brooke Johnson became friends with Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
It had been a year and a half since he’d stepped down as Prime Minister, and now he was walking to work, putting cereal bowls on cartoon place-mats, washing dishes and making peanut-butter on toast. He was no longer doing pirouettes behind the Queen but sometimes he was hanging around with Brooke, sliding down ice-covered staircases on Mount Royal.
Through reminiscences, journal entries and correspondence, Brooke brings to life the story of a remarkable friendship. At once vital and charming, poignant and very funny, Trudeau Stories is about friendship and loss… and about who the heck we think we are.
News & Reviews
“… [an] unexpectedly engaging memoir … like turning the pages of a live snapshot album … a maximum of craft but a minimum of artifice … it’s delightful.” —National Post
About the Author
Brooke Johnson has performed in theatres from the Bay of Fundy to the Foothills of the Rockies. Her solo show Trudeau Stories, based on her surprising friendship with Pierre Elliott Trudeau, has been touring Canada since 2007. Brooke has four Dora Mavor Moore Best Actress nominations for her work in Toronto’s theatres. Johnson lives in Toronto, often on the trawler “Mary Mary,” which she and her partner Adrian Truss sailed two winters ago from Florida.
