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.

• Ah ! ma chère, si tu savais, indiscrétion comique, paroles et musique de E. Famechon
• Salut des comédiens aux soldats du front, poème de Miguel Zamacoïs
• C'que c'est qu'un poilu, poème de Romain Coolus
• Le Mercure galant ou la Comédie sans titre, comédie d'Edmé Boursault, scène VI
• Quand Madelon..., chanson marche, paroles de Louis Bousquet, musique de Camille Robert
• Démocrite, comédie de Jean-François Regnard, acte IV, scène 6
• La Cinquantaine, scène populaire en un acte de Georges Courteline
• Allemagne au-dessous de tout, chant patriotique, paroles de Jean Aicard, musique de Blanche Poupon
• La Marseillaise de Rouget de Lisle

Remerciements à Benoit Urbain pour les arrangements musicaux
Remerciements à Jacqueline Razgonnikoff pour son travail scientifique dont cette Journée particulière est en partie tirée.

Cette journée particulière a été créée dans le cadre de la Mission du centenaire de la Première Guerre mondiale.

Responsable artistique : Coraly Zahonero
Coordination et organisation : Agathe Sanjuan, conservatrice-archiviste de la Comédie-Française

And
Benoît Urbain: Pianist