Upon graduation, he chose to pursue an acting career, and his first professional role was as a 19-year-old Hamlet at the Crest Theatre in Toronto.
Upon his return to Canada in 1974, he took on the title role in the premiere of the English translation of Michel Tremblay's Hosanna at the Tarragon Theatre.
His definitive interpretation of the conflicted transvestite obsessed with Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra marked his arrival as one of Canada's leading actors.
Critic Richard Ouzounian believes this production served as a foundation for Monette's career as a director, calling it "a joyous romp in which the Fellinesque setting of Rome in the 1950s meshed marvelously with Shakespeare's text and the performances of Goldie Semple and Colm Feore".
Although critics argued that the musicals were too populist,[5] Monette erased the Festival's considerable financial deficit and brought in new audiences.