II.

History

The Comédie-Française was established by the union of three important Parisian acting companies. In 1673, after the death of the French playwright Molière, his company, the Illustre Théâtre, united with a rival company, the Théâtre du Marais, and began performing at the Théâtre du Guénégaud. In 1680, under a charter from King Louis XIV, the Guénégaud merged with the oldest Parisian company, the Comédiens du Roy from the Hôtel de Bourgogne (the troupe that staged the tragedies of the French playwright Jean-Baptiste Racine under his own direction). The united company was granted a monopoly on all new productions of French-language plays. It became known as the Comédie-Française to distinguish it from the Comédie-Italienne, the commedia dell'arte troupe that took over the vacated Hôtel de Bourgogne.

The Comédie-Française began at the Guénégaud but subsequently occupied several well-known theatres. In 1689 it was displaced and moved to a theatre on a street eventually known as the rue de l'Ancienne Comédie. In 1770 it moved to a location in the Tuileries, and in 1789 the Théâtre de l'Odéon was built for it on the left bank of the Seine. During the French Revolution the company split into two factions; the politically liberal faction, under the celebrated actor Talma, moved to the company's present location in the rue de Richelieu. The Odéon burned down in 1799, and in 1803 the company was reunited in the rue de Richelieu under a charter from Napoleon. In 1816 a rival company was formed and occupied a rebuilt Théâtre de l'Odéon, becoming the second ranking theatre in France. During various periods in the 19th century and for several years following World War II, the Odéon (now called the Théâtre du Luxembourg) and the Comédie-Française were united under one management. The loss of its monopoly on new productions led the Comédie-Française in the 19th century to develop its reputation for staging classical French plays by writers such as Racine, Molière, and Pierre Corneille; but it also staged important new works, such as plays by Alexandre Dumas (père and fils).

In the 20th century the Comédie-Française also produced film and television works and extended invitations to foreign directors, including Britain’s Terry Hands who was a consultant director from 1975-1977. In addition to the Salle Richelieu, in 1993 the Comédie-Française acquired and reopened the 300-seat Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in the heart of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area, and in 1996 inaugurated a third space, the intimate 136-capacity Studio-Théâtre in the subterranean Carrousel du Louvre. While up to 400 performances are given each year in the main Salle Richelieu, maintaining the theatre’s founding principles and preserving its traditional repertoire, these new venues have enabled the Comédie-Française to widen the scope of its output to include modern works by such playwrights as Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, and Tom Stoppard.