Between Reconstruction and Shock : A historically informed interpretation of Baroque and Classicist theatre on the contemporary French stage
Abstract
Individual art forms have developed different methods for adequate rendering of works dating form earlier periods - e.g. in music the so-called historically informed practice of performance (whose aim is to come as close as possible to the sound of the period), in literary translation a conformal method of translation (which maintains the formal devices of the original, albeit at the cost of seeming odd and unintelligible to the reader). In dramatic theatre approaches of this kind are as yet unusual.
However, there exists in France a movement inspired by the work of Eugene Green that endeavours to stage the French Baroque and Classicist repertoire in accordance with the staging practice of the particular period. The paper illustrates the possibilities of such an approach to staging drama on three productions: Moliere''s "Le Bourgois Gentilhomme" (2004, dir.
Benjamin Lazar) and "Le Médecin malgré lui" (2002, dir. Jean-Denis Monory) and Théophile de Viau''s "Les amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé" (2009, dir.
Benjamin Lazar).