ON TOUR / Jean-Baptiste, Madeleine, Armande et les autres... ・ Comédie-Française

For her third production with the Troupe, after "Vania" and "Fanny et Alexandre", Julie Deliquet stages the artistic rivalries that featured constantly in Molière’s life and in that of his troupe.

She focuses on 1662-1663 when the success of L’École des femmes at the Palais-Royal prompted a cabal to which the author replied with La Critique de L’École des femmes, in which he mocked his detractors in a furious debate set in a salon, and then L’Impromptu de Versailles, in which he shows himself directing a rehearsal. This textual material combined with historical data provides a mine of information for today’s Comédiens-Français to invent the daily life of their predecessors. Within a sort of theatrical inn in which public and private spheres meet, they embody Jean-Baptiste, at the moment of his marriage to Armande Béjart, but also the faithful Madeleine, the renowned Brécourt, Mlle Du Parc, future mistress of Racine, as well as Mlle de Brie, Ducroisy and Lagrange – who were to become the first sociétaires of the Comédie-Française.

The Salle Richelieu thus becomes a communal setting, a mini-society in the heart of seventeenth-century France formed by these strong personalities who gather in private after performing, sometimes still in stage costumes. The doors open onto moments of sharing and doubt, between budding loves and growing children. With this show, which blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, the Troupe pays an intimate tribute to its patron, the leader of one of the first theatre collectives.

After L'École des femmes (1662), La Critique de l'École des femmes and L'Impromptu de Versailles (1663)

Premiere 17 June 2022 Salle Richelieu

Creative team

Adaptation: Julie Deliquet, Julie André and Agathe Peyrard
Directed by: Julie Deliquet
Dramaturgy : Agathe Peyrard
Scenography: Éric Ruf and Julie Deliquet
Costumes: Julie Scobeltzine
Light: Vyara Stefanova
Sound: Vanessa Court
Artistic collaboration: Julie André
Scenography assistant: Zoé Pautet
Costume assistant: Yanis Verot