1. 17th Century French Theatre Practice

2. Overview: Historical background Theater and theatrical companies
The Neoclassical Ideal
The Cid
Corneille
Racine
Moliere

3. Historical Context
Religious controversies in the XVI century that continued in the XVII century
1625 – Cardinal Richelieu
( Louis XIII’s prime minister)
France the cultural center of Europe

4. Cardinal Richelieu The French stage needed drastic reform
Looked to Italy for guidance
Advocated adoption of the proscenium stage and perspective scenery
The drama should adhere to theoretical principles articulated in Italy during the XVI century
These principles make up what came to be called the neoclassical ideal.

5. The Neoclassical Ideal
Only two legitimate forms of drama:
♣ tragedy
♣ comedy
Tragedy deals with affairs of
the state
Comedy deals with love
The two should never be mixed!

6. Neoclassicists: the purpose of drama is to teach and to please
Opera came to France in the second half of the century

7. Theaters and theatrical companies
In addition to public theaters, plays were produced in private residences, before the court and in the university
The public, the humanist theater of the colleges and the theater performed at court showed extremely divergent tastes
- tragicomedy was fashionable at the court
- the public was more interested in tragedy
The early theaters in Paris were often placed in existing structures like tennis courts:
- stages were extremely narrow
- facilities for sets and scene changes were often non-
existent
Eventually, theaters would develop systems of elaborate machines and decors

8. Theater performances took place twice a week
Theatrical representations often encompassed several works:
a comic prologue, a tragedy or tragicomedy, a farce and finally a song
Nobles sometimes sat on the side
of the stage during the
performance
The audience was always aware
of each other
Spectators were notably vocal
during performances

9. - The place directly in front of the stage, without seats(the "parterre“) was reserved for men
- It was usually a mix of social groups
- Elegant people watched the show from the galleries
- Princes, musketeers and royal pages were given free entry
- Before 1630, a honest woman did not go to the theater
Unlike England, France placed no restrictions on women performing on stage
But the career of actors of either sex was seen as morally wrong by the Catholic church and by the religious Janseanist movement
Actors typically had fantastic stage names that described typical roles or stereotypical characters

10. Main requirements of a neoclassical drama
Five acts
Unity
- time ( 24 hours only)
- place ( same place)
- action ( only one plot)
“Poetic justice” to triumph

11. The Cid by Pierre Corneille
In 1636 the most popular play written in France
Did not obey all the neoclassical rules
The French Academy praised its qualities but criticized the deviations from the rules
This controversy legitimized the neoclassical view

12. The Cid
Le Cid (1637) was influenced by Spanish tales of the famous 11th century warrior known as Le Cid
This was Corneille’s first masterpiece
Conflict between the claims of society and personal choice
In the end love must subordinate to a higher sense of purpose

13. Sources of inspiration
The most important source for tragic theater was Seneca and the precepts of Horace and Aristotle, classical authors such as Plutarch, Suenitos, etc. and short story collections (Italian, French and Spanish)
The Greek tragic authors (Sophocles, Euripides) would become increasingly important by the middle of the century
Important models for both comedy, tragedy and tragicomedy of the century were also supplied by the Spanish playwrights Tirso de Molina and Lope de Vega
Important theatrical models were also supplied by the Italian stage (including the pastoral). Italy was also an important source for theoretical discussions on theater, especially about decorum

14. Jean Baptiste Poquelin ( Moliere)
The most important authors of the seventeenth century theatre in France were:
Pierre Corneille
Jean Racine
Jean Baptiste Poquelin ( Moliere)
Other playwrights: Claude Boyer, Michel Le CLerc, Jacques Pradon, Jean de la Chapelle, Antoine d’Aubigny de la Fosse, Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon

15. Pierre Corneille
Together with Racine, the greatest classical tragic dramatist
Educated by Jesuits, studied law, entered the Rouen parliament
Regarded as the founder of French tragedy, but he wrote comedies too
The Cornellian hero
In 1647 was admitted to the Académie Francaise

16. He wrote thirty plays, choosing a great many historical subjects, several of which had often been used before, such as Sofonisba, Attila, Oedipus.
He avowed his allegiance to the so-called classical rules, and for a part of the time he adhered to them.
His theory was that the subject of a tragedy should be remote and improbable, with as many striking and extraordinary situations as were compatible with unity of action

17. Melite (1629), Clitandre, La Veuve, La Galerie du Palais, La Suivante, La Place Royal, and L'Illusion Comique - comedies and tragicomedies
Le Cid, Horace, Cinna, Polyeucte – these four plays are considered his greatest achievements as a writer and thinker
Rodogune, Theodore (his first failure), Nicomede, Pulcherie, Surena

18. Each play reveals the essence of Cornelian tragedy
Conflict usually ends not in death and destruction, as in Racine's plays, but in moral growth and an abiding sense of duty
The protagonists suddenly realize that they must acquire moral strength and do whatever is right, regardless of the personal cost.

19. Jean Racine 1639-1699 Attended the Jansenist school at Port-Royal
His fusion of the Greek idea of fate with the Jansenist belief in human helplessness later produced unique tragedies of the struggle of the will against the passions
Studied philosophy in Paris

20. Moliere produced Racine's first plays, La Thebiade (1664) and Alexandre le Grand (1665)
Confirmed in his theatrical vocation by the reception accorded these plays, Racine broke with the Jansenists and devoted himself entirely to his art

21. Andromaque (1667) - occasioned a great rivalry between him and Corneille
Bajazet, Mithridate, Iphigénie, Phèdre, Esther, Athalie
Corneille's characters are moral giants endowed with indomitable will. Racine's are intensely human.
La Bruyère: Corneille painted human beings as they ought to be; Racine painted them as they are.

22. In 1672 he was elected to the Académie Française
Under increasing attack from other playwrights
Retired from theatrical activity and married in 1677
His last two plays, Esther and Athalie were on biblical themes, written for performance by students at a school for the sacred and secular education of young women

23. Moliere ( Jean Baptiste Poquelin)
Went to a Jesuit school
Studied law
In 1643 joined the Illustre
Theatre
Composed 12 of the most
durable and penetratingly
satirical full-length
comedies of all time

24. As a comic dramatist he ranks with such other distinctive masters of the genre as Aristophanes, Plautus, and George Bernard Shaw.
Also the leading French comic actor, stage director, and dramatic theoretician of the 17th century
Molière affirmed the potency of comedy as a serious, flexible art form
The king's brother became Molière's patron

25. He is credited with giving the French
“Comedy of manners” and
“Comedy of character”
their modern form

26. The Precious Maidens Ridiculed (1659), established him as the most popular comic playwright of the day
Molière advanced from being a gifted adapter of Italian-derived sketches and a showman who put on extravaganzas to a writer whose best plays had the lasting impact of tragedies
He made many enemies - the clergy mistakenly believed that certain of his plays were attacks on the church. Other playwrights resented his continual experiments with comic forms

27. Strongest influence the Italian commedia dell'arte troupes
He applied the alexandrine , to a relaxed dialogue that imitated conversational speech
He created a gallery of incisive portraits: Tartuffe the religious hypocrite, and Orgon, his dupe; Jourdain the social climber; Don Juan the rebel and libertine; cuckolds such as Arnolphe, Dandin, and Amphitryon; Alceste the stony idealist; Harpagon the miser; Philaminte the pretentiously cultured lady; and many more.

28. The Death
He finally collapsed on Feb. 17, 1673, after the fourth performance of The Imaginary Invalid, and died at home that evening. On the night of February 21, he was interred in Saint Joseph's Cemetery.
Church leaders refused to officiate or to grant his body a formal burial.
Seven years later the king united Molière's company with one of its competitors; since that time the French national theater, the Comédie Francaise, has been known as the House of Molière.

29. Plays by Moliere Short plays ( one or two acts): The Jealous Husband
The Flying Doctor
Sganarelle
The Rehearsal at Versailles
The Forced Marriage
The longer plays (in three or five acts):
The School for Husbands
The School for Wives
Tartuffe
Don Juan
The Misanthrope
The Doctor in Spite of Himself Amphitryon, The Miser, George Dandin, The Bourgeois Gentleman, Scapin, The Learned Ladies, and The Imaginary Invalid

30. Thank you for your attention!
Any questions?

31. Bibliography
Oscar G. Brockett, Robert J. Ball, The Essential Theatre, p