Théâtre Mareux

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Historical view of Rue Saint-Antoine by Carlo Bossoli

The Théâtre Mareux was a Parisian theater that existed from 1785 to 1807 and was located on Rue Saint-Antoine .

The history

The mirror dealer Toussaint Mareux, born in Tricot in 1735, earned very little with his trade. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that he preferred to talk to the neighbors rather than taking care of his business and, on the other hand, because the prices for glass products were fixed by the king and therefore his trading margin was only small. He had a philosophical streak and was therefore not dissatisfied with his fate, also because he had three children, Adelaïde, Louis and Auguste, who would later feel drawn to the fine arts.

Foundation and operation

Mareux dreamed of future fame and happiness and in him the idea of ​​building a theater that he also wanted to manage and this theater should be able to hold a candle to the Comédie-Française matured . The undertaking was not easy to implement, because the theater was heavily regulated. In 1785 he founded an amateur theater whose performances took place in private. There were quite a few such theaters in Paris. When the property next to his shop, where there was previously a wheelwright , became vacant, he borrowed 3,000 livres to build a theater there. He commissioned the architect Boulland to build a beautiful hall with a foyer, café and boxes and only six months later a magnificent but practical building was in place. It had three floors with 60 boxes that could be reached via two flights of stairs and had a total of 400 seats.

The business model provided that Mareux founded an association, the members of which were the ensemble. He won so-called investors from the better society, who had to raise the one-time sum of 9,000 livre as start-up financing, for example to pay for the lighting or the printing of the tickets and also for the equipment of the theater and for costumes. Then the investors - they were called guests, but were actually subscribers - had to pay 4,250 livre annually for ongoing operations. The boxes were reserved for these 60 guests. The performances took place regularly on Sundays, always with the same 60 guests. The remaining seats were taken by the amateur actors and musicians themselves, as well as the remaining people necessary for a theater business, who were rewarded for their commitment. Well-respected actors have already been hired as the workhorse. During the week Mareux wanted to rent the theater to other troupes and musicians.

The police chief of Paris Louis Thiroux de Crosne approved the operation of the Théâtre de Société Mareux and the premiere took place in January 1786. To this was François-Joseph Talma involved. Most of the repertoire came from the archive of the Comédie-Française, which they did not like and demanded their prerogative and demanded closure. When Mareux replied that, in contrast to the Comédie-Française, his theater association was small and economically insignificant, the police chief upheld his approval. However, through middlemen, the Comédie-Française managed to buy tickets in the theater's office, which proved that it was not a club and that the Théâtre Mareux was actually closed in 1788. Mareux, however, did not give up and was able to convince the Finance Minister Pierre-Charles Laurent de Villedeuil for his cause and temporarily resume operations. The Comédie-Française then wrote to Emmanuel-Félicité de Durfort who, however, stated that the Comédie’s rights had been violated. A process ensued that was carried all the way to Parliament, which ordered its closure on July 11, 1789.

From the French Revolution

Three days later the Bastille was stormed and public order began to shake. Mareux took advantage of this and reopened his theater in October 1789 without obtaining any further permission. This went on until May 1790, when, based on a decree by Jean-Sylvain Bailly , who was of the opinion that there were too many theaters in Paris, they were ordered to close again. Mareux was not bothered by that either, because games continued in October.

Mareux took part in the popular uprising in 1792 as a member of the commune insurrectionelle , while his daughter Adelaïde continued to run the theater with him , but now under the name Théâtre de Thalie , which is perceived as more modern . She fell victim to the Jacobean terror in 1793 , and he was troubled by competition from the nearby Théâtre Doyen . So Mareux decided to sell the house and return to his homeland, where he owned a house and a piece of land. He died there in 1811.

The theater was then continued under the name Théâtre des Elèves dramatiques et lyriques until 1802, under different owners, when the playwright Benoît Pelletier-Volméranges took over the house and reopened as Théâtre Mareux. So it came about that the troupe of the Théâtre des jeunes Éleves performed there regularly.

The end

In 1807, general theater operations were prohibited by the Napoleonic theater decree and the Théâtre Mareux also had to close. The hall existed until 1838 and was then torn down.

literature

  • Gaston de Pawlowski in Comoedia : Le Théâtre Mareux , edition of November 8, 1922, p. 3, digitized
  • Léo Claretie in La Rampe : Le Théâtre Mareux , edition of December 10, 1921, p. 16, digitized

Web links