The Monument-National () is an historic Canadian theatre located at 1182

Saint Laurent Boulevard Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in ), is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north west–south east through the near-centre of ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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. With a capacity of over 1,600 seats, the venue was erected between 1891 and and was originally the cultural centre of the

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (, ) is an institution in the Canadian province of Quebec dedicated to the protection of Quebec francophone interests and to the promotion of Quebec sovereignism. It is known as the oldest patriotic association in ...

. The building was designed by Maurice Perrault, Albert Mesnard, and Joseph Venne in the Renaissance Revival style and utilizes a steel frame—a building technique that was innovative for its time.

Yiddish theatre

The first performance of a

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

play was held there in what is now the theatre's Ludger-Duvernay room in the winter of 1896. The Monument-National was a key cultural landmark in Montreal's historic Jewish quarter, and it continued to host productions from touring and local Yiddish theatre companies until the 1940s.

Renovations and current status

The theatre was declared a historic monument by the

Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec The Ministry of Culture and Communications (, ) is responsible for promoting and protecting the culture in the Canadian province of Quebec. The current minister, since 2022, is Mathieu Lacombe. The ministry was formed in 2012 after the immigr ...

in 1976 and a National Historic Site in 1985. A major restoration project of the theatre was completed in June 1993 in time for the theatre's centennial celebration. The 1,620-seat theatre has been owned by the National Theatre School of Canada since 1971, and it is the venue used for its productions.

References

External links

History of the Monument-National
{{Authority control National Historic Sites in Quebec Theatres in Montreal Theatres on the National Historic Sites of Canada register Heritage buildings of Quebec Jewish Canadian history Jews and Judaism in Montreal Yiddish culture in Quebec Yiddish theatre Theatres completed in 1894 Quartier des spectacles Renaissance Revival architecture in Canada University and college buildings in Canada 1894 establishments in Quebec National Theatre School of Canada