Antiquity

The history of the Théâtre Occident Al begins with the religious ceremonies from the ancient Greece. On these occasions the contest of Tragédie took place. Each author was subsidized by a patron and was to present a tetralogy (three tragedies and a Drame satyric), these four parts were played after in the same day. The spectacle was held in a theater (theatron) of outdoor. The word amphitheater was not used by the Greeks, but rather by the Romans. The actors were only men.

In the year -534, Thespis associated with the chorus (which sang Dithyrambe S with the glory of the Greek heroes) single a Acteur (the protagonist) which played all the parts. Starting from Eschyle, there was a second interpreter, then Sophocle utilized some a third. The characters and the chorus (all masculines) were then masked, as at the beginning of the Roman epoch (as from second century BC).

Then, the Latin theater turns more to the joke and MIME. At the time Roman, the representations were played in a theater, of architecture slightly different from the theater of the Greeks. It was built according to the cities on a flat space, or with the back of a hill. The Acteur S from now on are made up instead of carrying a mask.

See also: Roman Theater, Architecture of the Roman theater

The period of the beginnings of Christianity follows where the theater is violently criticized by the theologists (Tertullien will qualify it the démoniaque one in its spectacles , Augustin d' Hippone will criticize the pernicious attraction of it), and the actors are excommunicated (as of the council of Carthage, in 398, to also see the article: Excommunication of the actors).

In France

Paradoxically, it is however the religion, with the Moyen-âge, which reinvents the dramatic play, of the mysteries and liturgical dramas, at that time reappears also a popular and comic repertory (joke S and Sotie S).

The mysteries are often played to thank the sky for having put an end to a plague, an epidemic, a war or to save the city. They put in scene primarily the passion and the Résurrection of Christ, sometimes of the characters of the Old Testament, the Apostles, or recall the life of saints. As from the moment when religious division is established, at the 16th century, they will disappear.

The first two written plays all in French that we have date from the end of the 12th century. We ignore their author and the conditions under which they were represented.

At the 15th century, one redécouvre tragedies of Sénèque the Young person.

With the Rebirth, the principal forms of the end of the Middle Ages remain, but in 1548, the representation of the mysteries is prohibited, only parts “profane, honest and licit” can be created. Appears a new theater which, while breaking with the literary traditions, joins again with Antiquity.

On the 17th century is essential the traditional theater.

At the 18th century, the influence of the large playwrights of the century of Louis XIV persists on the scene of the Comédie-Française but of the renewals appear with the tragedies of Voltaire (1694-1778) which introduces modern subjects by keeping the traditional structure and the alexandrine ( Zaire , Mahomet ) and which obtains great successes. Nevertheless the censure is always active as testify some, under Louis XVI still, the difficulties of Beaumarchais for its Mariage of Barber .

The release of manners of the Régence brings another renewal of the theater with the return, since 1716, of the Italian Comédiens driven out by Louis XIV and the beginning of a very great vogue of the theatrical spectacle: one presses oneself to admire famous actors (Lélio, Flaminia, Silvia…) and laughter of the Gibe S and the dynamism of the characters resulting from the Commedia LED' arte like Harlequin, Colombine or Pants. It is in this line that finds place Marivaux (1688-1763) and its comedies which associate the smoothness of the analysis of the feeling in love and verbal subtlety with the light-hearted gallantry with the societies' problems by exploiting the topic emblematic of the couple Master-servant. the False Confidences , the Play of the love and the chance or the Island of the slaves constitute some of its major works.

Lesage (1668-1747) to him also marked the comedy of manners with its Turcaret (1709), but the other great author of comedies of the century is Beaumarchais (1732-1799) which is skilful in the art of the dialog and the intrigue, but also in the social satire and policy through the character of Figaro, servant débrouillard who disputes the capacity of his Master and whom one finds in two major works: the Barber of Seville (1775) and the Marriage of Barber (1784).

The theater of the 18th century is also marked by new kinds, today regarded as minors but what will take again and transform the 19th century, as the Comédie larmoyante and the middle-class Drame who put forward the pathetic situations in the realistic context of dramatic situations which touch middle-class families. Some explicit titles: the natural Son (Diderot, 1757), the Father (Diderot, 1758), the Philosopher without the knowledge (Sedaine, 1765), the Wheelbarrow of the vinegar manufacturer (Draper, 1775) or the guilty Mother (Beaumarchais, 1792).

Let us mention finally the development of kinds which associate text and music like the light comedy or the comic Opéra, as well as texts of reflection on the theater with Diderot and its Paradoxe on the actor , the writings of Voltaire to always defend the condition of the theatrical people to the round of applause of the Church, and the judgments of the theater for immorality by Rousseau.

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