Only a few decades ago, every evening featured two plays, a short one – or curtain raiser – before the main event. The new cycle of Special Days invites audiences to step into the Repertoire time machine and take a close look at the practices of the spectator of the past: how did people get to the theatre? What time did they arrive? How big was the audience? What ways did they pay attention to plays in different historical contexts? What kinds of careers were enjoyed by plays performed as openers and that are never presented today? Thanks to the daily registers kept since 1680, everything that has happened in the House of Molière since its creation has been recorded in writing. It is to discover this precious record that the public is being invited today to attend this cycle of Special Days. There will be readings by the actors of the Troupe, presentations of the authors and the actors who performed their texts, and an analysis of the context of the performance: each event, run by a Comédien-Français (Claude Mathieu, Sylvia Bergé, Coraly Zahonero and Laurent Natrella this season) and coordinated by Agathe Sanjuan, the Comédie-Française’s curator-archivist, is an opportunity to dive into a literary heritage that comprises close to three thousand plays.

Cette journée particulière est composée de lectures de scènes de Thermidor, de documents d’archives et d’extraits de presse conservés à la bibliothèque-musée de la Comédie-Française.

Sont parus chez Classiques Garnier des Drames et pièces historiques de Victorien Sardou :

• Tome I – Patrie ! La Haine (édition d’Olivier Goetz, Aline Marchadier, Isabelle Moindrot et Florence Naugrette)
• Tome II – Fédora, La Tosca, Spiritisme (édition de Romain Piana, Isabelle Moindrot et Olivier Goetz)
• Tome III – Thermidor, Robespierre (édition de Sophie Lucet et Aline Marchadier)
• Tome IV –Les Merveilleuses, Madame Sans-Gêne, Paméla, marchande de frivolités (édition de Marion Chénetier-Alev et Aline Marchadier)
• Tome V – Théodora, Cléopâtre, Gismonda (édition de Guy Ducrey et Sylvie Humbert-Mougin)
• Tome VI – Dante, La Sorcière, L’Affaire des poisons (édition de Patrick Besnier et Sophie Lucet)

Responsable artistique : Sylvia Bergé, sociétaire de la Comédie-Française
Coordination et organisation : Agathe Sanjuan, conservatrice-archiviste de la Comédie-Française

and
Sébastien BaulainThéo Comby-Lemaitre
Thomas Gendronneau
Tom Wozniczka