Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Les Vingt Jours de Théâtre à risque
Quebec alternative theatre festival begun in 1989, which was an annual event until 1994 when it became biennial. It divided productions between Montreal and the city of Jonquière. The artistic director/founder was Sylvie Lachance, with coordination for the 1998 festival headed by Elizabeth Déry.
At the beginning, it was a slightly more high-profile and less funky event than the Fringe Festivals, but was still a lively free-for-all of very fine and very awful theatre. The festival delighted in the unorthodox, with variations in venue, in form and in accomplishment.
Among the artists and works which were featured there were Sylvie Drapeau, Daniel Danis, performance artist Tanya Mars, Cabaret Neiges Noires, as well as companies from Europe and across the Americas.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the festival was that it gave some important but largely unseen productions a second chance before a wider audience.
In 1998, due to severe cuts in governmental funding (particularly by the province), the festival was reduced in days (to ten) and productions (to four) and was presented with little fanfare and much-reduced press interest. There was no 1999 edition.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois
Last updated 2021-03-16
Since October 2002, Athabasca University has hosted the web site, with an editorial board of theatre scholars from across Canada.
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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.
