Download Chapter 16

Chapter 16
French Theatre
• Alexandre Hardy
– Rowdy audiences/plays
• Paris became France’s theatre center
• Medieval staging conventions (simultaneous,
emblematic) except for environmental
• Italian influence on France because they were
“related”
• Le Cid (Corneille)-earned acclaim for following
neoclassical conventions but was criticized for the
ones it strayed from
• Italianate theatre comes to Paris.
• Tennis court (public) theatre needed to adapt
or die
• King Louis XIV- “The Sun King”
– His approval/ego helped benefit theatres
– National self-display
– Theatres received royal subsidy and patronage
– Still performed for the public
– Audience—demanding and sophisticated
– Replaced Italy’s as the model for Europe
Two Emerging Playwrights
• Racine-trained in the classics produced the
ultimate Neoclassical play: Phedre (Phaedra)
• France accomplished producing lasting,
popular drama (something England had not)
• Moliere- actor-dramatist, great comic writer,
Roman, Italian and French farce influenced
him
• The Imaginary Invalid
• Denied last rites; King Louis had to intervene
Theatre Companies
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5 companies
Sharing companies
Had women
No householders
3 troupes after Moliere's death
– Comedia Francaise-comedies and tragedies
– Italian troupe-operas
– Lully’s company-entertainment and spectacle
Sentimentalism
• King Louis XIV influenced this
• Each individual is basically good
• Neoclassicism said life was a struggle between
good and evil
• Sentimentalism implied that people were
“perfectible”
Changes in Production
• Costumes—still contemporary rather than
historical
• “Prettified”
• Vanishing point moved from center to side
(angle perspective)
• Allowed actors to work closer to the scenery
and allowed more “perfect” seats for the
audience; more than one “truth”
Changes in Performance Practice
• Lines of business-rigid rules about roles
– “walking” lady or gentle men (3rd line)
– Specialist in low comedy or “stage eccentric” (2nd
line)
– Hero or heroine (1st line)
• Actors declared specialty and remained in that
for their careers
• Utility players-new actors (male and female)
gained experience by playing many roles
• Possession of parts- agreement that the actor
would keep his or her role in the company as
long as he or she remained in the company
• Acting style: Vocal power and versatility
• Those not in the Comedie Francaise were part
of the “illegitimate” theatre not sanctioned by
the government; commercial; attracted paying
crowd with spectacle
English Restoration Theatre
• When theatre reopened in 1660 some 50+ years
after it closed, it modeled French theatre
• French traits
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–
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Women actors
Conventions of Italianate staging
Newly designed theatres
French-inspired producing arrangements—King
approved monopoly patents
• Very similar to French theatre
Restoration Drama
• Comedies of manners
– Reflected the artificial, mannered, and aristocratic
society of the day
– Influenced by the life in Louis XIV’s court
• Audiences were small
• Sentimentalism-conservative shift
– 1730s heroes and heroines embodied middle-class
values
– Sentimental comedy dominated English comedy,
breaking from Neoclassicism
• Serious plays-domestic tragedy
• Minor forms: opera, pantomimes and
afterpieces
• English Theatre in America
– William and Lewis Hallam established troupe and
performed in Virginia in 1752, opening with
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice