Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Lachapelle, Andrée
Quebec-based actor, born in 1931; died November 21, 2019 with medical assistance at the age of 88, after a struggle with cancer. Andrée Lachapelle was well known from many performances on television and in film as well as on stage.
Her first featured role was the lead in Carlo Goldoni's La Locandiera/Mirandolina in 1965. In the following three decades, she performed a wide range of roles from the classical to the contemporary repertory in most of the major houses of Quebec. She has been seen in works by Molière, Ibsen, Williams, Chekhov and even Neil Simon as well as in the works of Canadian writers, such as Jovette Marchessault, Normand Chaurette, and Wajdi Mouawad.
Andrée Lachapelle was as convincing in a villainous character like the mistress in Genet's Les bonnes/The Maids (Espace Go, 1993, directed by René Richard Cyr) as she was in more vulnerable roles like Albertine at 60 in the awesome production of Michel Tremblay's Albertine, en cinq temps (Espace Go, 1995 directed by Martine Beaulne). She played opposite her daughter by the late actor Robert Gadouas, Nathalie Gadouas, for the first time in Théâtre de Marjolaine's production of Les Girls à Clémence (summer, 1999). In January 2001, she appeared in the Jean-Luc Lagarce double-bill Les règles du savoir-vivre dans la soiété moderne & Music-hall at Espace Go.
In 1993, Andrée Lachapelle founded the Académie québécoise du théâtre which would award prizes at the Masques Awards to plays, actors, designers and productions presented across Quebec in French and English. In doing this, she helped give theatre a higher profile and bring theatrical artists to public attention.
She was a recipient of the Order of Canada in 1985, and was named a Knight of the Order of Quebec in 1997 .
Viewings: Phèdre, Radio-Canada, 1963, dir: Jean-Paul Fugère, a production of the Racine play staged for television.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois.
Last updated 2020-12-10
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The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
