About Duceppe
Our Commitments
Duceppe is committed on several complementary fronts. When it comes to environmental responsibility, the theatre aims to reuse 50% of its production materials and to give a second life to 65% of them after each show—work carried out with Écoscéno since 2019 and extended to all of its operations since 2022.
In terms of diversity and inclusion, Duceppe showcases Indigenous artists, artists from culturally diverse backgrounds, and artists living with disabilities, adapts its processes based on each project, and has maintained gender equity in positions of power since David Laurin and Jean-Simon Traversy took over as co-artistic directors. The theatre is also actively working toward universal accessibility in its venues, in collaboration with Place des Arts and a dedicated community of practice.
Finally, Duceppe supports Quebec theatrical creation through its writing residencies, its call for projects for emerging companies, and its Laboratoires de la relève, which welcome young artists and artists from underrepresented groups into its Centre de création.
Our History
"Theatre must be a celebration for the general public. I want to make them laugh or make them cry; I want to reach them, to touch them, just as in life." — Jean Duceppe
These few words alone capture Jean Duceppe's desire to offer the people of Quebec a theatre that reflects their voice and speaks to their concerns. As the first company to stage Quebec translations at a time when theatre was performed as it was in Paris, Duceppe broke new ground, making this living art form accessible when it had once seemed reserved for the elite.
Beginnings
In 1973, convinced that Montrealers needed to see Charbonneau et le Chef and Death of a Salesman, which he had just performed at Le Trident in Quebec City, Jean Duceppe founded his theatre company, pouring into it the passion, instinct, and determination that defined him. He set up shop at the Théâtre Port-Royal at Place des Arts. The very first season was a hit: that year, the company welcomed 152,262 spectators.
Repertoire
Duceppe has always favoured contemporary works that address essential themes in our lives and our cultural and social concerns, including classics by Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck, Eugene O'Neill, Bernard Shaw, and Neil Simon, as well as more recent works by David Mamet, David Lindsay-Abaire, Tom Holloway, Lee Hall, Nina Raine, Andrew Bovell, David Ives, J.T. Rogers, Duncan Macmillan, Robert Icke, and Suzie Miller.
Duceppe also places great importance on national dramaturgy. Audiences have had the chance to enjoy works by, among others, Michel Tremblay, Marie Laberge, Françoise Loranger, Gratien Gélinas, Marcel Dubé, Michel Marc Bouchard, John Thomas McDonough, Antonine Maillet, Steve Galluccio, Serge Boucher, Claude Meunier and Louis Saia, Evelyne de la Chenelière, Jean-Rock Gaudreault, Sébastien Harrisson, Stéphane Brulotte, Robert Lepage, Projet Bocal, La Messe Basse, François Archambault, Catherine-Anne Toupin, Olivier Kemeid, Fanny Britt, Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard, Michel-Maxime Legault, and Nathalie Doummar. Since 2017, Duceppe has offered writing residencies. True creative laboratories, these residencies allow playwrights to focus on writing a new play, supported by a $15,000 grant from the Fondation Duceppe.