Demeilliez, Marie. "Molière’s ‘Turkish Ceremony’ and Other turqueries Performed in 18th-Century théâtre de college."

Demeilliez, Marie. "Molière’s ‘Turkish Ceremony’ and Other turqueries Performed in 18th-Century théâtre de college." In Music and Mirrored Hybridities: Cultural Communities Converging in French, German, and Turkish Stage Productions (17th–20th Century), edited by Judith I. Haug and Hanna Walsdorf, 13-35. Baden-Baden: Ergon Verlag, 2023.


Abstract:
Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and its iconic ‘Turkish ceremony’ met with great success at the Comédie-Française, and was adopted for performance, with some modifications, by the French collèges. These educational institutions were intellectual and scientific hubs, known also for their staged performances that often played a major role in the theatrical and artistic lives of their cities. From the Middle Ages onwards some collèges established themselves as veritable laboratories of theatre, where several dramatic genres were created and developed. Constant exchanges with other performance institutions led to the rise of the importance of music and dance in the theatrical practices in 17th and 18th-century collèges.
There are two surviving mid-18th-century adaptations of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme for collège stages. The first, dating from 1750, was performed at the Jesuit collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris; the second was staged at the collège of the Chanoines Réguliers of Ste. Geneviève in Nanterre in 1753. Both adaptations were performed during prize-giving ceremonies in August, at the end of the school year. As is often the case in the history of dramatic performances in schools, source materials are rare; frequently they consist only of a few copies of the programmes that were printed for the occasions.
After presenting the context of these two performances and analysing the re-use of the Molièresque topos, I will examine how Molière’s ‘Turkish ceremony’ fits into the tradition of the turquerie as performed in collège theatres. I will also attempt to define what these turqueries tell us about the perception of ‘Turks’ and ‘Turkey’ — or rather, the Ottoman Empire — in the 18th-century collèges.