Pierre Brault dives into his role in 5 O'Clock Bells, on at MTC Warehouse.

WINNIPEG - Actor Pierre Brault didn't choose to write a play about late Winnipeg guitar legend Lenny Breau so much as the play chose him.

"I think almost everybody has a Lenny moment," says the Ottawa creator and star of MTC Warehouse season-opener 5 O'Clock Bells. Brault's Lenny moment came when he spun a Breau album in his 20s, after being intrigued by the similarity between the sound of their last names.

"I plugged it in and this incredible, soulful, honest, beautiful music came out and almost sent me to the verge of tears," he said. "I thought, 'Who the hell is this guy?' "

That guy, as legions of Winnipeggers know, was a natural-born guitarist who started plucking away at age seven. In 1957, when he was 16, his country-singin' parents Hal Lone Pine and Betty Cody moved the family to Winnipeg, where jazz pianist Bob Erlendson took him under his wing, and he eventually became a house guitarist at the then-hopping Stage Door. While Breau's jazz chops were renowned, Breau also influenced local rock, performing with Ray St. Germain on TV's Red River Jamboree and teaching his craft to an aspiring musician you may have heard of: Randy Bachman.

"Bachman himself says basically everything he learned on the guitar, he learned from Lenny Breau," Brault says of the Guess Who strummer. "He would basically skip school and go to Lenny's house and Lenny would show him a few things. Lenny was the foremost guitar player in the world at the time -- despite the fact that the world didn't really know it -- and here was Randy Bachman, essentially getting private lessons from him."

Along with Bachman, Breau went on to tutor acclaimed jazz acts like Pat Metheny and Joe Green, while establishing his own catalogue of recordings. His post-bop riffs had become the stuff of legend by the time of his tragic death in 1984 -- when he was found at the bottom of an L.A. pool.

"When he was murdered, he was a recovering junkie, and people didn't care," Brault says. "People just assumed the worst. The coverage in the papers was very quick. There was no deep-down investigation as to really what happened."

Brault says the mystery of Breau's murder -- which is still unsolved -- tweaked his interest almost as much as his music, but he stresses it's not the focus of 5 O'Clock Bells.

"When I started to investigate (Lenny's death), the murder became so much of the background because I discovered this incredible life. Anybody who's ever met Lenny Breau said that to meet him was to love him. I think that contributed to his death, in that he was just too naive and too nice. People took advantage of him. I guess that's what I wanted to get across, was what a beautiful person this guy was; not just a beautiful musician."

Brault uses the perspectives of those close to Breau to paint his portrait in 5 O'Clock Bells -- a solo effort the Sleeping Dog Theatre artistic director (and MTC first-timer) performed to sold-out Ottawa crowds during its initial three-week run in 2008. It includes seven characters (one for each string on Breau's customized guitar): His parents, his two wives, his mentor Chet Atkins and two other fellow musicians.

"Lenny himself is such an enigmatic character that the only way I could really find out about him is the way he was reflected in those around him," Brault says. "When I tried to put Lenny's voice in, it never really sounded right. If people are a little afraid they might be frustrated that they don't see Lenny, I can assure them, he's there. You can feel him all the time."

You can also hear his tunes -- via recordings and played live by guitarist and Breau acolyte Paul Bordeau.

"I do play guitar myself, but I don't play it on stage because I think that anybody who knows Lenny Breau would start to boo me," Brault laughs.

Perhaps even more so in Breau's old stomping grounds, where there's a mural (on the wall of Long & McQuade on Stafford Street) to prove his impact on the local scene.

"I know that I'm going into Lenny Breau country, and it's not intimidating, but it really feels wonderful for me to take this story to what I think was the home of Lenny Breau."

Along with providing a deeper glimpse at a local hero, Brault hopes 5 O'Clock Bells' stint at the Warehouse will do for Winnipeggers what the Breau track after which it was named did for him.

"Anybody who comes to the show always appreciates a new insight, but I think they also come away with the desire to just throw on a Lenny Breau piece, and just sit back and enjoy it."

More Theatre Reviews