Introduction
Neoclassical theatre appeared in France in the 17th century and greatly influenced composing, theatrical design, and construction. Its appearance is closely connected with the learning of Latin and Greek performances, and brought some improvements to French plays which started to follow definite “unities”. Place, time and action became the three components to assess in terms of their harmony.
Verisimilitude and action also were assessed to define if a creation could be called a neoclassical. The comedies of 17th century France were characterized by application of farce and the principles of Commédia dell’Arte . Speaking about the tragedies, they must preserve the “unities”, and turned to Greek or Latin creations as examples to follow (Kobialka 1999).
The history
Analyzing neoclassical theatre it is necessary to turn to historical conditions of its developing. It is essential to study the religious chaos in of 17th century France, as well as the Cathérine de Médicis, Henry II and Louis XIV part since they greatly affected the neoclassic theatre developing of the 16th and 17th centuries (Roberts 1962).
Neoclassicism appeared during disordered period in France, at the beginning of the 16th century. Religious misunderstandings between Catholic Protestant churches started, and took place periodically for sixty years. Church performances were forbidden in 1548 by Henri II, obviously due to the religious chaos. The forbid on such performances brought a hurting harm to French theatre; however its ban let secular theatre to expand. In addition in 1548, Henri became a husband of Cathérine de Médicis, a woman from wealthy Italian family. Cathérine was a real admirer of the theatre, and created plays at court. The role of this woman and her children in how Italian affected French theatre was also very significant.
Louis XIV came to the power in 1643, and his authority was unlimited who accepted as true the “living image of God”. His authority in France appeared to be expanded to the outer space. He made the final decisions about the legislative issues. The next course for his authority was unlimited was that a capitalist system was thriving in the country, and the guilds were declining.
Throughout his time in power, the meaning of French patriotism was increasing. Big sums of money were invested into armed forces, and a more complicated tax scheme was appearing. The harmony of time, place and action together with verisimilitude and decorum also became obligatory during his rule. These principles were the main values all performances were created under beginning from 1636.
Neoclassical style appearance
New neoclassical creations in the style started to appear at the beginning of the 16th century. For instance, Ravius Textor created a lot of Latin Dialog that were played by scholars at the University of Paris in 1501-1524. These creations took much form at the fictional affects of the past.
The dramatist, Roilletus, issued several Latin works in 1536. These creations took much from Classics as well. These were played by college scholars. At the College of Guinne in Bordeaux, Latin performances by George Buchanan and Muretus were made in 1539-1545 (Brockett 1968).
A different change in French neoclassical theatre was started by people known as the Pleiades. They represented an organization of authors and reviewer who wanted to build up French as the intermediate for a literary creations based on classic literature. In 1639 this organization turned into l’Académie Française where the people created regulations for language rules and writing style, improved language, and expressed their thoughts in their creations.
Neoclassical Plays and dramatists. Moliere
The primary neoclassical drama sprang from Pléiades., Etienne Jodelle created some neoclassical works of different genres in 1552. His play Eugène was written a Roman farcical way. His creation Cléopâtre captive was played before the ruler. This brought neoclassical thought to the spectators. In 1572, Jean de Taille issued special principles. Actually by that time, many writers were applying neoclassical thoughts (Brockett 1974).
Famous playwright Moliere is usually associated with farce and his favorite genre. He is considered to be the most prominent dramatist of neoclassicism, who greatly influenced other dramatists of the given period. Moliere generously contributed to portraying the weaknesses of humans honestly. He created farcical heroes to portray real characters and was even ill-treated for judging human weak points.
Moliere applied the principles of the Académie and neoclassical writing style. The dramatist usually applied rhyme couplets). The next feature of neoclassicism that is usually noticeable in his creations is deus ex machina. In the most well-known creations Tartuffe and The Would-Be Gentleman, the problem is solved in the end with a message that came from the king solving all the controversial issues and brining drama to the end (Brockett 1974).
Moliere had his own performance group Palais Royal. The troupe was successful and finally was called “The King’s Men” by king Louis. The playwright died in 1673 performing arts in The Imaginary Invalid. The Church did not want to make a religious service for Moliere because he was connected to the theatre. At the end, the great dramatist was buried at night in a small rural community. In 1680, Louis combined the Molière-Marais group that was called the Comédie Française (Goldfarb 1994).
The end of neoclassicism
Neoclassicism started to disappear at the time when just a couple of theatres left in Paris. French political opinions were growing more and more traditional. Two instances of the inclination towards conservatism is connected with Louis XIV. In the year 1685, the king canceled the Edict of Nantes (that assured parity Catholics and Protestants). Over 200,000 Protestants had to go away (Brockett 1974). A different conservative action taken by Louis was the driving out the Comédie Italienne for playing a political satire. Playwrights started to return to other resource for motivation instead of seeking innovations. Thus by 1700, France came to conservatism.
Works Cited
- Kobialka, Michal, ed. Of Borders and Thresholds: Theatre History, Practice, and Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999
- Roberts, Vera Mowry. On Stage a History of Theatre. New York: Harper & Row, 1962
- Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theatre, Second Edition. Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1974.
- Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theatre, Third Edition. Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1977, 1974, 1968.
- Goldfarb, Alvin and Wilson, Edwin. Living Theatre A History. McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1994.
