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The Lessons of the Reconstructed Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

C. M. Fogarty and
Tom Lawrenson
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Extract

The material upon which this paper is based is divided into two sections. The paper concerns the problems presented to historians of the theatre confronted by staging conventions. The first section is intended to consider in general terms our own experience of some of these problems—problems which, while forming given constants in the preoccupations of theatre scholars, have been brought sharply into focus by Robert K. Sarlós' recent article in Theatre Research International, “Creating Objects and Events.” The second seeks to examine the generalities which we put forward in an account of the practical reconstruction of Mahelot's staging of Pyrame et Thisbé in the early seventeenth-century Hôtel de Bourgogne.

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Articles
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Theatre Survey , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , November 1981, pp. 141 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1981

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References

1 Sarlós, Robert K., “Creating Objects and Events.” Theatre Research International, vol. V, No. 1 (1979–1980), pp. 83 et seqCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Sarlós, p. 85.

3 Mémoire de Laurent Mahelot, Michel Laurent, et d'autres décorateurs de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne et de la Comédie Française au dix-septième siècle, ed. Lancaster, Henry Carrington. Paris: Champion, 1920Google Scholar.

4 See “Madame Bovary: Essai de Reconstitution,” Cahiers Gaston Baty, VIII (1971)Google Scholar, or Theatre Research/Recherches Théâtrales, Vol. XIII, No. 2 (1974)Google Scholar. This latter contains illustrations of the two tableaux reconstituted. The entire exercise was made possible by the kindness of Mme Gaston Baty and the Conservateur-en-chef of the Bibliothéque de l'Arsenal.

5 See Lawrenson, T. E., The French Stage in the Seventeenth Century (Manchester University Press, 1957), Ch. 5Google Scholar; Deierkauf-Holsboer, S. Wilma, Histoire de la mise en scène dans le thèâtre français à Paris de 1600 à 1673 (Paris: Nizet, 1960)Google Scholar and Histoire de la mise en scène de 1600 à 1657 (Paris: Droz, 1933)Google Scholar; Scherer, Jacques, La dramaturgie ciassique en France (Paris: Nizet, n. d.), pp. 147 et seqGoogle Scholar.

6 Roy, D. H., “La Scène de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne,” Revue d'Histoire du Théâtre, 1962, pp. 227 et seqGoogle Scholar. Illingworth, D., “Documents inédits et nouvelles précisions sur le Théâtre de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne d'après des documents du dix-huitième siècle,” Revue d'Histoire du Théâtre, 1970, pp. 125 et seqGoogle Scholar. Villiers, A., “L'Ouverture de la scène à l'Hôtel de Bourgogne,” Revue d'Histoire du Théâtre, 1970, pp. 133 et seqGoogle Scholar. Barlow, Graham, “The Hôtel de Bourgogne according to Sir James Thornhill,” Theatre Research International, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1976), pp. 86 et seqCrossRefGoogle Scholar. Wiley, W. L., “The Hôtel de Bourgogne: another look at France's first Public Theater,” Studies in Philology, Vol. LXX (1973)Google Scholar.

7 Lawrenson, T. E., Roy, Donald, and Southern, Richard, “Le Mémoire de Mahelot, et l'Agarite de Durval; vers une reconstitution pratique,” Le lieu théâtral à la Renaissance (Paris, 1964)Google Scholar.

8 Lawrenson, T. E., “The Contemporary Staging of Pyrame et Thisbé: the Open Stage imprisoned,” Modern Miscellany presented to Eugène Vinaver (Manchester, 1969), pp. 167 et seqGoogle Scholar.

9 Roy, D. H., “Mahelot's Nights: a traditional stage effect,” Gallica: Essays presented to Thomas, J. Haywood (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1969)Google Scholar.

10 Fogarty, C. M., “Un décorateur de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne avant Mahelot,” Revue d'Histoire du Théâtre (1978)Google Scholar.

11 La pratique du théâtre, ed. Martino, P. (Paris, 1927), pp. 164 et seqGoogle Scholar. See also “The Contemporary Staging of Pyrame et Thisbé,” p. 171.

12 Most of the Pratique was written from 1640 to 1642 and possibly amended before 1657, the date of publication. Performance of Pyrame et Thisbé was probably 1622 or early 1623 at the latest.

13 From private correspondence between T. J. Reiss and T. E. Lawrenson on the subject of the contemporary staging of Pyrame.

14 Fogarty, C. M., “A Reconstruction of the interior of the Hôtel de Bourgogne,” Maske und Kothurn, 26 (1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Deierkauf-Holsboer, S. Wilma, L'Histoire de la mise en scène dans le théâtre français à Paris de 1600 à 1673 (Paris, 1960), p. 12Google Scholar. W. L. Wiley, Hôtel de Bourgogne, p. 33.

16 We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of Mr. William Elwood, who built the model.

17 C. M. Fogarty, “A Reconstruction of the Hôtel de Bourgogne.”

18 Crowther, C. E., An examination of Elements of Presentation and their possible influence on Acting Style in the French Theatre of the 1620's with special reference to Pyrame et Thisbé. Unpublished M. A. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1972.Google Scholar

19 Jack Chambers.