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La Participation dramatique: spectacle et espace théâtral (1730–1830) . Par Michèle Sajous D’Oria

2021; Oxford University Press; Volume: 75; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/fs/knab133

1468-2931

Thomas Wynn,

Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

During the Revolution, some twenty to thirty theatres offered Parisians thousands of plays, many of which contained — or were feared to contain — allusions to the changing political landscape. The proliferation of theatres increased the perceived risk that the urban fabric could conceal illegitimate political sentiment and activity, as Pierre-Jean Audoin lamented at the end of the century: ‘Mais comment garantirez-vous à la loi sa surveillance, si des théâtres, si des tréteaux peuvent s’élever dans toutes les rues, dans toutes les maisons d’une cité? Quelle ressource pour les contre-révolutionnaires!’ (cited p. 211). Audoin’s anxiety sits at the heart of Michèle Sajous D’Oria’s richly detailed and wide-ranging exploration of theatre in the long eighteenth century; she examines how French dramatists, spectators, actors, entrepreneurs, and authorities navigated between conflicting demands for censorship and freedom, and how theatre, in the very process of negotiating with changing political regimes, built its own power. The book is in three parts, the first of which concerns the period’s use of antiquity as a model for moral edification by dramatic works, as well as for the very buildings where those works were performed. Sajous D’Oria persuasively argues that antique decoration, far from being a superficial veneer, is in fact part of the mise en scène of political power; new values take material form in a space where spectator-citizens gather in repeated acts of mutual recognition. The highlight of this section is the analysis of pantomime, and Sajous D’Oria makes a compelling case for the importance of the still under-appreciated Jean-Nicolas Servandoni. The book’s second part focuses on the presentation of heroes and martyrs in revolutionary plays; in addition to a deft analysis of plays featuring Jean Calas, Descartes, and Montesquieu, the author assesses the dramatic presentation of farmer Michel Gérard (a.k.a. le Père Girard) who also appears in Jacques-Louis David’s painting Le Serment du jeu de paume, and whose rural common sense was compared to the moral integrity of the ancient patriarchs. The book’s third part tracks how the authorities responded with derision and censure in their attempts to control spoken and sung theatre in a period when playhouses multiplied and genres diversified; the pages on the dramatizations of the castrato Farinelli are the most successful in this section. The volume features four appendices, the first of which — an overview of the size and dates of the Parisian playhouses — is especially helpful. By her own admission, Sajous D’Oria takes her readers on a sizeable journey, marked by a diversity of subjects, approaches, and characters (including the adventurer Alessandro Cagliostro, and Anita Ekberg as the Queen of Palmyra). Often a fascinating account of artists, audiences, and authorities, this volume would have benefited from a conclusion to tie some of those vibrant threads together.