Les Journées particulières (Special Days) ・ Comédie-Française

How did they perform plays at the Comédie-Française one or several hundred years ago?

Only a few decades ago, every evening featured two plays, a short one –or curtain raiser– before the main event. The new cycle of Special Days invites audiences to step into the Repertoire time machine and take a close look at the practices of the spectator of the past: how did people get to the theatre? What time did they arrive? How big was the audience? What ways did they pay attention to plays in different historical contexts? What kinds of careers were enjoyed by plays performed as openers and that are never presented today? Thanks to the daily registers kept since 1680, everything that has happened in the House of Molière since its creation has been recorded in writing. It is to discover this precious record that the public is being invited today to attend this cycle of Special Days. There will be readings by the actors of the Troupe, presentations of the authors and the actors who performed their texts, and an analysis of the context of the performance: each event, run by a Comédien-Français (Claude Mathieu, Sylvia Bergé, Coraly Zahonero and Laurent Natrella this season) and coordinated by Agathe Sanjuan, the Comédie-Française’s curator-archivist, is an opportunity to dive into a literary heritage that comprises close to three thousand plays.

En 1916, l’Administrateur général de la Comédie-Française Émile Fabre crée le Théâtre aux armées pour donner des représentations aux abords du champ de bataille. Les artistes qui y participent, tous volontaires, sont issus d’horizons artistiques variés, de la Comédie-Française, comme de l’Opéra, du monde de la chanson et du cirque. Les programmes sont composés de courtes pièces, scènes, numéros, chansons patriotiques, récitations, assemblés à l’envi et interprétés dans des conditions précaires devant ceux qui vivaient l’enfer des tranchées au quotidien : c’est « la rencontre des comédiens qui passent et des soldats qui s’en vont » comme le dit Béatrix Dussane.Cette Journée particulière convie le public d’aujourd’hui à l’une de ces représentations de fortune : point de mise en scène élaborée, mais des artistes exceptionnels qui ne ménagent pas leur énergie mise au service d’un rude public, au chevet d’une humanité de sang et de boue. La grande Sarah Bernhardt, le célèbre chanteur Mayol, la jeune Élisabeth Nizan, Béatrix Dussane, Cécile Sorel, se rendront sur le front ce jour-là… Au programme : Regnard, Boursault et Courteline.