The repertoire of the Comédie-Française,
an extraordinary collection of masterpieces and forgotten
plays, has included approximately 3 000 titles since the
foundation of the theatre in 1680. To this series of
works submitted to the Reading Committee for
approval for creation or first performance on the Salle de Richelieu
stage, must also be added the "expanded"
theatrical repertoire which is made up of the plays
performed by the Comédiens-Français on other associated stages and includes
numerous contemporary creations.
A MONOPOLY
Originally holding a monopoly on French
plays by King's order, the Comédiens-Français have
endeavoured to create and develop the French-language
repertoire over the years.
To the plays of Molière, Corneille, Racine, the company
first added works by Rotrou, Scarron, Thomas Corneille,
and Donneau de Visé, and then by Dancourt, Hauteroche
and Baron. The whole 18th century was dominated by a real
"theatremania" highlighted by the prestige of
Voltaire, whose well acclaimed tragedies at the time are
quite neglected today. Regnard, Destouches, and Nivelle
de la Chaussée became famous with their comedies.
Diderot, and Sedaine, followed by Beaumarchais, paved the
way for the "drame bourgeois",
while Marivaux obtained his greatest successes at the Comédie-Italienne
where most of his plays were performed.
During the French Revolution the
monopoly on French plays held by the Comédiens-Français
was abolished. The fact that all the theatres were then
free to put on the plays they chose gave greater scope to
the creation of new ones.
ROMANTICISM AND
BOURGEOIS COMEDY
Nevertheless, the Romantic
"adventure" with Dumas, Vigny, Hugo and Musset experienced historic successes and
battles on the stage of the Théâtre-Français around
1830. Bourgeois comedies and historical dramas (Labiche, Scribe, Augier,
and Dumas fils) were also performed, while plays
pertaining to the naturalistic movement (Becque) created
scandals. The 20th century emerged as a period of
openness and enrichment of the repertoire. During the
Belle Époque years, plays by Jules Renard and Courteline
were performed, while Feydeau only appeared in 1941.
The foreign repertoire, performed for a long time after
adaptations, expanded to include plays by Ibsen,
D'Annunzio and Shakespeare.
OPENNESS OF THE
REPERTOIRE
Copeau and "Cartel" stage
directors Jouvet, Dullin and Baty put on plays by
Pirandello, Giraudoux and Mauriac. Two creations by
Montherlant and Claudel took place during the German
Occupation. Under Maurice Escande's management, the
creation of works by Audiberti (1962) and Ionesco (1967)
provoked scandals. Chekhov was first performed in 1961.
This openness was accentuated by
Escande's successors Pierre Dux (with productions of
Beckett and Brecht) and Jacques Toja (with productions of
Vitrac and Goldoni). The subsequent Managing Directors
Jean-Pierre Vincent, Jean Le Poulain, Antoine Vitez,
Jacques Lassalle and Jean-Pierre Miquel have made it possible for the
Comédiens-Français to tackle contemporary French and
foreign playwrights, or rediscover older ones, such as
Rotrou, Calderón, Lessing, Schiller, Kleist, Nerval, Strindberg,
Sartre, Camus, O'Neill, Genet, Arrabal, Césaire, Grumberg, etc., while
providing a fresh look at the main repertoire.
The availability of a second theatre
— first, the Théâtre de l'Odéon, then the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier (1993) — and the opening of the Studio-Théâtre in
1996 are allowing the Comédie-Française to expand its
repertoire even more and include 20th-century playwrights
(Sarraute, Duras, Calaferte, Koltès, Schéhadé, Topor, Chaurette, etc.). It is also possible to
explore various staging ideas impractical in a horseshoe-shaped theatre
and to allow — in the case of the new
repertoire or the abandoned repertoire to be revived
(e.g., S. Zweig) — for
experiments to be carried out alongside the classical
repertoire.
|
