Le Gesù

Le Gesù

Part of Collège Sainte-Marie, an educational institution for boys founded by the Jesuits in 1848, the Salle du Gesù was inaugurated on 10 July 1865 with a debate on patriotism by the Académie française. The theatre was located beneath the Gesù church, which opened for worship on 3 December 1865. However, it was not until the 1923 renovation that shows were presented there. Father Joseph Paré directed the Anciens du Gesù troupe, whose actors such as Hector Charland and Paul L'Anglais would later leave their mark on our young theatrical history,

Major renovation work in 1945 equipped the theatre with modern equipment (control room, lighting system, turntable) and a modular layout to accommodate between 875 and 1000 spectators. That same year, the Compagnons de saint Laurent, led by Father Émile Legault, performed there. In 1946, the Équipe, founded by Pierre Dagenais, succeeded in presenting atheist Jean-Paul Sartre's play Huis clos in this hallowed space, in the presence of playwright Gratien Gélinas and Tit-Coq, the first milestone of a truly national dramaturgy, in 1948, for 61 performances. The Théâtre du Rideau Vert and the Théâtre d'essai performed there in 1949. Then the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, after the success of its first production, Molière's L'Avare, in 1951, took up residence there until 1957; it again performed Molière (Le Tartuffe, 1953) and other authors, but came up against the Collège Sainte-Marie’s censorship, which demanded approval of the choice of plays.

Among the plays created at Le Gesù are De l'autre côté du mur, which marked author Marcel Dubé’s debut in 1952, and the following year, Zone, which will soon be adapted for CBC television. This was followed by Jacques Languirand's Les Insolites in 1956, Claude Jasmin's Le Veau dort in 1963 and Robert Gurik's Le Pendu in 1967. Finally, since its founding in 1964, the Nouvelle Compagnie Théâtrale (NCT), whose mandate was to bring repertory theatre to student audiences, obtained financial support from the Jesuits for their first production, Racine's Iphigénie. This was the start of a great adventure that ended in 1975 when the NCT moved to Montreal’s east end, to the former Granada Cinema, which later became the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier. The first Nuit de la poésie (Poetry Night) took place at Le Gesù in 1970.

Classified as a historical monument and cultural asset by the Quebec Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 1975, Le Gesù gradually changed its purpose. With the demolition of the college that adjoined the church, further renovations transformed the hall into two amphitheatres with 425 and 83 seats respectively, in addition to two exhibition halls, a conference room and a large hall. In 1992, after an extensive national consultation, it was established as a place of creation and dissemination open to the next generation and changed its name to Les Salles du Gesù, which was changed again in 2003 to Le Gesù - Centre de créativité. The venue features music and song, theatre and dance, as well as visual arts and literature.