“Turqueries" were in fashion in 1670 when Molière wrote this comedy for a lavish royal occasion. It excelled both in the representation of the exoticism in vogue at the time, and in its caricature of a middle-class social climber keen to adopt the good manners that are the hallmark of “quality people”. The entire stage is taken over by the flighty behaviour of this man who clumsily practices dancing and fencing, or tries to learn philosophy with childish simplicity. His wife and maid are the first to make fun of him, objecting to his increasingly authoritarian stance, especially when he refuses to give his daughter’s hand to Cléonte because he is not a noble. The mockery is further intensified thanks to the valet’s ruse of introducing the lover into the family home disguised as a “great Turk”, offering a crowd-pleasing finale with the Mamamouchi scene.
Valérie Lesort and Christian Hecq happily make use of everything that feeds the eccentricity of this Monsieur Jourdain, frantically attracted to all things royal: “He is boundlessly naive and this naivety is particularly touching. Like many artists, we work with child audiences and Molière makes his Bourgeois a child playing pretend.” This show for all audiences is replete with poetic charm and childhood games madness.

This show premiered on January 18, 2021 at the Salle Richelieu

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In Molière’s time, the repertoire was not limited to spoken theatre. In the comedy-ballet Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, first performed in 1670, for the court at the Château de Chambord, theatre combines with dance and the music composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully. After the premiere (1680), the Comédie-Française continued to perform the play with its interludes of singing and dancing, thanks to the multi-talented actors of the Troupe. In the eighteenth century, there were even actors from the troupe put in charge of ballet choreography. Because no effort was spared when it came to the audience’s enjoyment, the budgets for comedy-ballets and other popular light comedies concluding with entertainments reached new heights and required the official creation of a ballet master. Due to its cost, the position was abolished in 1799, after musical plays died out during the Revolution.

The Opera and the Comédie-Française then began to collaborate more frequently in the nineteenth century, which was particularly beneficial to Molière’s comedy-ballets, which were the most frequently performed pieces at the time (Le Malade imaginaire and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme). From 1948 onwards, in particular, they benefited from sumptuous productions, notably Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, staged in 1951 with a preciously preserved set, and then on the occasion of two tercentenaries, that of Molière’s death (1973) and that of the founding of the Comédie-Française (1980).

The interweaving of theatre with dance and/or opera initiated by Molière has resulted in a multiplicity of outcomes on the stage of the Comédie-Française since the middle of the twentieth century, with the vaudevillian Feydeau and the satirist Brecht (The Threepenny Opera) entering the repertoire, the production of new choreographic performances (Signature, L’Autre), cabarets (since 2008) or a show that recreates a recording session (Comme une pierre qui...). The last production of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme at the Comédie-Française dates back to 2000.

• Bourgeois gentilhomme, 1986, © photo. Claude Gafner / Coll. Comédie-Française

Direction: Valérie Lesort and Christian Hecq
Scenography: Éric Ruf
Costumes: Vanessa Sannino
Lighting: Pascal Laajili
Original music and arrangements: Mich Ochowiak and Ivica Bogdanić
Choreographic work: Rémi Boissy
Puppets: Carole Allemand and Valérie Lesort
Assistant direction: Florimond Plantier
Assistant scenography: Julie Camus
Assistant costumes: Claire Fayel

and the musicians and the dancer:

Ivica Bogdanić: Musician, accordion, percussion
Rémi Boissy: Dancer; Tailor boy and puppet manipulation
Julien Oury: Musician, trombone, tuba
Alon Peylet: Musician, trombone, trumpet, tuba
Victor Rahola: Musician, helicon
Martin Saccardy: Musician, trumpet