Theatres in Bordeaux in the French revolution: Political struggles on stage

Abstract

At the end of the Ancien Régime, theatre in Bordeaux was particularly renowned due to the construction by Victor Louis of one of the most beautiful performance halls in France. This study aims to describe the theatrical activity during the Revolution and to show how theatres proliferated because control of the stage had become a real political issue. The theatre, indeed, was both an educational place for the emergence and propagation of the new ideas, a format convenient for citizens, but also a closed space favourable to contestation. We also consider the consequences of this political activism on the actors.