Overview

Theatre in France was the first in Europe to be written in the vernacular as opposed to Latin. It has provided the English language with the medieval word farce, the early-modern word role, and the modern term mise en scène. Molière is single-handedly responsible for launching European-style playwriting in North Africa. Today, it is only a slight exaggeration to say that it's harder to get tickets for the Festival d'Avignon, one of the world's largest theatre festivals, than for the Rolling Stones' farewell tour. Containing chapters by globally eminent theatre experts, many of whom will be read in English for the first time, this collaborative history testifies to the central part theatre has played for over a thousand years in both French culture and world culture. Crucially, too, it places centre-stage the genders, ethnicities and classes that have had to wait in the wings of theatres, and of theatre criticism.

Full Product Details

Author:   Clare Finburgh Delijani (Goldsmiths, University of London) ,  Christian Biet (Université Paris Nanterre)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.683kg
ISBN:  

9781108827904

ISBN 10:   110882790
Pages:   476
Publication Date:   08 January 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction Clare Finburgh Delijani; 1. The performing arts in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century France: the making of theatre Marie Bouhaïk-Gironès and Estelle Doudet; 2. Drama during the wars of religion: a contextual approach Charlotte Bouteille and Tiphaine Karsenti; 3. Drama before standardization: the theatre of blood Christian Biet; 4. Neoclassical tragedy: listening to women John D. Lyons; 5. Molière, a man of the stage? Martial Poirson; 6. Theatres as economic concerns: Molière, the Hôtel Guénégaud and the Comédie-Française Jan Clarke; 7. Seventeenth-century printed theatre: gender and peritext Derval Conroy; 8. Non-official eighteenth-century stages: censorship, subversion and entertainment Guy Spielmann; 9. The expanded theatre of the French revolution Sanja Perovic; 10. Nineteenth-century melodrama, vaudeville and entertainment: the vitality and richness of a marginalized theatre Roxane Martin; 11. New approaches to women actors and celebrity in nineteenth-century France Clare Siviter and Emmanuela Wroth; 12. Extended romanticism in the extended nineteenth century Florence Naugrette; 13. Poetry in action, 1945–1968: from Antonin Artaud to Lettrism and the Domaine Poétique Cristina De Simone; 14. Performance and installation art: re-turning to Artaud through Christian Boltanski Carl Lavery and Rezvan Zandieh; 15. Twentieth- and twenty-first-century theatre directing: perception at play Christophe Triau; 16. Political theatre in France (1954–2020): The Brechtian ordinate Olivier Neveux; 17. Liberating third world theatre: Serreau, Kateb, Césaire, and Genet Joanne Brueton; 18. Francophone theatre-makers in France: Traumatizing the French stage Judith G. Miller; 19. Migration in modern and contemporary playwriting: uprooting and rerouting Clare Finburgh Delijani; 20. An interview with Éric Ruf Clare Siviter; 21. An interview with Magali Mougel Chris Campbell; 22. An interview with Phia Ménard Estel Baudou.

Reviews

'A New History of Theatre in France is an exciting book that brings fresh insight and ranges from the fifteenth century to the present time. Unlike previous histories of French theatre, Finburgh Delijani's collection both highlights the central part theatre has played in French culture over the centuries and updates the specificities and interconnections between different periods and geographical locations that make up the French theatrical landscape.' Osita Okagbue, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Goldsmiths, University of London 'Assembling an impressive range of academics and practitioners, this revisionist history of a nation's theatrical culture insightfully sites the legacy of patronage, empire, revolutions, colonialism and world wars on the ways in which theatre has been made and valued. Examining the influence of French dramatists and theatre-makers beyond France, the volume saliently identifies what travels where and why. The result is a study of the centrality of theatre to French culture that has far-reaching implications for understandings of drama, theatre and performance across the globe.' Maria Delgado, Professor of Theatre and Screen Arts, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London 'This rich collection of essays provides a very welcome challenge to traditional anglophone preconceptions about French theatre. Ranging far beyond France's metropolitan centre, leading experts from multiple fields bring performances in the provinces and across the French colonies centre stage. From the middle ages into the twenty-first century, questions of nationalism and transnational identity, race and gender, social class and state control are shown to have been routinely explored in a wide range of performance venues. At long last, French theatre history has been liberated from both a traditional neo-classical straitjacket and an exclusionary, masculinist lens.' Fiona Macintosh, Professor of Classical Reception, University of Oxford

'A New History of Theatre in France is an exciting book that brings fresh insight and ranges from the fifteenth century to the present time. Unlike previous histories of French theatre, Finburgh Delijani's collection both highlights the central part theatre has played in French culture over the centuries and updates the specificities and interconnections between different periods and geographical locations that make up the French theatrical landscape.' Osita Okagbue, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Goldsmiths, University of London 'Assembling an impressive range of academics and practitioners, this revisionist history of a nation's theatrical culture insightfully sites the legacy of patronage, empire, revolutions, colonialism and world wars on the ways in which theatre has been made and valued. Examining the influence of French dramatists and theatre-makers beyond France, the volume saliently identifies what travels where and why. The result is a study of the centrality of theatre to French culture that has far-reaching implications for understandings of drama, theatre and performance across the globe.' Maria Delgado, Professor of Theatre and Screen Arts, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London 'This rich collection of essays provides a very welcome challenge to traditional anglophone preconceptions about French theatre. Ranging far beyond France's metropolitan centre, leading experts from multiple fields bring performances in the provinces and across the French colonies centre stage. From the middle ages into the twenty-first century, questions of nationalism and transnational identity, race and gender, social class and state control are shown to have been routinely explored in a wide range of performance venues. At long last, French theatre history has been liberated from both a traditional neo-classical straitjacket and an exclusionary, masculinist lens.' Fiona Macintosh, Professor of Classical Reception, University of Oxford '… this impressive volume covers French-language theatre history from the oldest vernacular plays (1100s) to a selection of contemporary performance artists … There are fresh insights throughout. … Recommended.' F. H. Londré, Choice

Author Information

Clare Finburgh Delijani is the recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2023–26) and is one of the leading specialists in theatre and performance from the French-speaking world. She is currently writing a history of postcolonial theatre in France from the 1950s to the present day. Christian Biet was professor of theatre and performance at Paris Nanterre University, and visiting professor at New York University. Beginning his career as a specialist in the seventeenth-century French golden age, he diversified into areas including performance studies and theatre from East Asia.

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