KATE MENSOUR and ROBERT MARINIER
By Dan Lalande
“You can do better than this guy!”
In the summer of 1972, fourteen-year-old Catherine Mensour, or Kate as she’s better known, was one of the organizers of a drop-in centre in the basement of Saint Anne’s church in her native Sudbury. An enthusiastic eighteen-year-old, Robert Marinier, showed up to give theatre workshops funded by the local Opportunities for Youth program. Hence the “You can do better…” comment. Kate, who immediately classified Robert as a “theatre nerd,” directed it to the girlfriend who had tagged along with him.
Legendary relationships don’t always start with love at first sight. Like in a good play—as Robert, who has penned many, would know and Kate, who has cast quite a few, would also recognize—momentum must be permitted to build. Four years after that initial meeting, Kate and Robert began a 50-year relationship that’s still paying personal and professional dividends.
Kate’s opinion of Robert today is a long way from her initial assessment. “Bob is extremely kind,” she offers. “He’s very grounded, with a tremendous amount of integrity.” For his part, Robert maintains that “Kate is waaaay smarter than I am: very business minded, also generous and caring.” As for what makes these two contrasting personalities click, Robert offers, “Our neuroses complement each other very well.”
Kate’s father owned and operated Northern Ontario’s largest furniture store. His much-loved daughter moved to Ottawa to attend university. In time, she fell in with the city’s Franco-Ontarian cultural scene. Having inherited her family’s business acumen, she went on to found The Mensour Agency, Canada’s only bilingual promoter of acting, writing and directing talent. The agency was a key contributor to Ottawa’s emergence as a respected production centre, helping to create a professional infrastructure, facilitate union wages and offer greater artistic opportunities to local artists.
“I was so in love with creating this thing from nothing and watching it grow,” says Kate, 66, who helmed the agency from 1984 to 2024. “It not only facilitated theatre, TV, film and corporate work within Ottawa, but it also made inroads for Ottawa-based talent in Montreal.” While Ottawa’s enjoyed an impressive quotient of theatrical and media-based successes, the addition of the deeper opportunistic pool offered by Canada’s second-largest city put an even brighter spotlight on Ottawa-based talent working in both languages.
Though Kate closed the agency last year to devote herself to other goals, her commitment to promoting talent remains strong.
“We have a huge responsibility to create opportunities for the next generation,” she declares. While she’s still contributing to the scene in Ottawa, her recent focus has been her native turf. She helped raise funds for La Place Des Arts du Grand Sudbury, a multi-purpose cultural hub that has transformed the downtown core. She’s also set up the Mensour Foundation, through which she’s created bursaries and mentorships: one in arts administration with the Foundation of the Association of Francophone Theatres and another with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. For her steadfast vision and indefatigable work ethic, Kate was awarded The Order of Ottawa in 2024.
Robert discovered his talent for acting in high school after meeting legendary teacher and mentor Hélène Gravel, who encouraged him to pursue a career in theatre. He graduated from the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada, perfected his studies in Paris under influential theatre maven Alain Knapp, then settled in Ottawa. There was work here in both languages, some family ties and—oh yeah—the theatrical agent who had become the love of his life.
Robert, 71, is a leading Franco-Ontarian playwright who more humbly defines himself as “an actor who writes.” His distinctions include nominations for the Governor General’s Award for French-language drama (for his play l’Insomnie) and for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Actor in a Play, Mid-Size Theatre division. A recent work, Un conte de l’apocalypse, garnered him both the Champlain and Trillium Book Awards. He is also a dramaturge-in-demand, helping novice and established writers bring their work up to production standards.
While their individual contributions have been duly recognized, Kate and Robert have now been honoured as a couple. They’re the recipients of the Marie Eve Chassé Award, an annual designation presented by Théâtre Action, a provincial organization dedicated to the development and advancement of French-language theatre in Ontario. Kate and Robert are the first-ever couple to receive the award, a well-deserved tribute to intersecting careers that, over a five-decade span, have left a lasting footprint on Canada’s cultural landscape.
Their ultimate prize, of course, is each other.
