French Renaissance Theatre

A Timeline:

1402 Confrerie de la Passion formed to produce liturgical dramas in Paris. They gain a monopoly on this. Meanwhile the theatres of the foire (fairground) are continuing under ever-shifting regulation.

1548 The confrerie builds the Hotel de Burgogne (a converted townhouse), the first permanent theatre building in Europe since ancient Rome. However, before they can start using it, the government bans religious plays. Nevertheless, the confrerie retains their monopoly and become producers for a new secular drama produced at the Hotel.
1547-89. Catherine de Medici reigns as Queen of Henri II. Exerts substantial influence in bringing Italian culture into French society, promoting theatricals, pageants and other arts of an Italian nature.
Mid-1500s. The Pleiade forms, an artistic society devoted to the promotion of secular humanist arts in Paris and France. They promote the writing of plays based on classical models. However, at this point there is still active debate over what the lessons of the ancients really are, and how they should be followed.
1572-1632. Alexandre Hardy, the first truly professional French playwright. He didn’t adhere to neoclassical unities, had supernatural characters, and generally appealed to public taste. Most of his plays were performed at the Hotel de Burgogne.
1577 First professional actors at the Hotel de Burgogne

1625 Cardinal Richelieu comes to power, effectively running the government of Louis XIII. There had been a great deal of upheval in the French state—intrigues between aristocrats, assassinations of kings and nobles, religious war between Catholics and Protestants. Richelieu took strong action to centralize power in the monarchy. He took a similar attitude towards centralizing French arts and culture, which he based on the strongest available model—the Italians.
1634 The Theatre du Marais is constructed from a converted tennis court, the first professional competition for Burgogne.
1635 The Academie Francaise is formed out of 40 writers and intellectuals given the authority to make decisions on issues of national arts policy. Based on the model of Italian academies.
1636/7 Corneille’s Le Cid produced in Paris.
1641 Richelieu constructs the Palais Cardinal (renamed Royal after his death), the first theatre in France with a proscenium arch and a stage using flat wings.
1640s Giacomo Torelli comes to Paris overseeing the development of Italian scenic technology there. He introduces his machinery to the Palais Cardinal, and oversees the conversion of a palace into the Petit Bourbon, a massive state-of-the-art proscenium theatre. Tiberio Fiorillo’s commedia company arrives in Paris at the same time. Competes with French troupes.
1658 Moliere’s troupe returns to Paris after “exile” in the provinces.
1660s The Salles de Machines is completed. It is the largest theatre in Europe, constructed precisely to have much room for scenic machinery.
1669 Final version of Moliere’s Tartuffe
1680 Comedie Francaise established, the first national theatre in Europe.

* * *

The Le Cid controversy plays out in the mid-1630s, establishing the authority of the Academie Francaise over standards for French drama. As Ellen discussed, these standards included enforcement of the "three unities" of time, place and action; vraisemblance (verisimilitude) and bienseance (decorum), as well as some tricky negotiations over the representation of "truth" onstage. "Not all truths are good for the theatre," as Chapelain put it. As Ellen noted, the Academy's view was essentially utilitarian, viewing art as serving a function in relation to public morality and the development of a French national identity.