The Théâtre Montparnasse () is a theatre at 31, rue de la Gaîté in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.

History

After the death of famed Paris theatre builder and artistic director Henri Larochelle (1826-1884), his widow, along with former actor and artistic director Louis-Hubert Hartmann, built the present structure, which opened on 29 October 1886, on a site that had been dedicated to theatre since 1817. Architect Charles Peigniet, who helped create the pedestal for the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

in New York Bay, designed the new building. Although the Théâtre Montparnasse began as a commercial playhouse for melodramatic fare, it occasionally leased its stage to new experimentalist plays of the Independent Theatre movement. A year after the theatre's opening, Hartmann readily agreed to lease his stage to

André Antoine André Antoine (; 31 January 185823 October 1943) was a French actor, theatre manager, film director, author, and critic who is considered the father of modern mise en scène in France. Biography André Antoine was a clerk at the Paris Gas Uti ...

, whose revolutionary new company, the

Théâtre Libre The Théâtre Libre (; "Free Theatre") was a theatre company that operated from 1887 to 1896 in Paris, France. Origins and History Théâtre Libre was founded on 30 March 1887 by André Antoine (actor), André Antoine. The primary goal of the ...

, had, in spring 1887, earned immediate publicity as an exciting venture devoted to producing new plays. He also generously offered his warehouse of scenery and backdrops. Théâtre Montparnasse became the Théâtre Libre's home for the six programmed evenings between November 1887 and June 1888, where it presented fifteen new works of varying quality. The season's most resounding success was the French premiere of

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

's ''

The Power of Darkness ''The Power of Darkness'' (, Vlast′ t′my) is a five- act drama by Leo Tolstoy. Written in 1886, the play's production was banned in Russia until 1902, mainly through the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev. In spite of the ban, the play wa ...

'' on 10 February 1888, which led to a rare sold-out repeat performance eight days later. By contrast, on 16 January 1891,

Paul Fort Jules-Jean-Paul Fort (1 February 1872 – 20 April 1960) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. At the age of 18, reacting against the Naturalistic theatre, Fort founded the Théâtre d'Art (1890–93). He also founded and edi ...

's Théâtre d'Art presented a failed, five-and-a-half-hour production of Shelley's

The Cenci ''The Cenci. A Tragedy, in Five Acts'' ( ; 1820) is a verse drama in five acts by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in the summer of 1819, and inspired by a real Roman family, the House of Cenci (in particular, Beatrice Cenci). Shelley composed t ...

in French translation. From 1930 to 1943,

Gaston Baty Gaston Baty (; 26 May 1885 – 13 October 1952), whose full name was Jean-Baptiste-Marie-Gaston Baty, was a French playwright and theatre director. He was born in Pélussin, Loire, France. Career In 1921, Baty formed his own company ''Les Compa ...

directed the theatre, and as a result, it became known as the Théâtre Montparnasse-Gaston Baty. From 1944 to 1964, actress Margaret Jamois directed the theatre.Baur. In 1965, Lars Schmidt bought the theatre and appointed Jerome Hullot artistic director. Schmidt and Hullot introduced many English talents to the French stage, including such authors and actors as

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

Peter Shaffer Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (15 May 1926 – 6 June 2016) was an English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is best known for the plays '' Equus'' and '' Amadeus'', the latter of which was adapted for the screen by Miloš Forman, with an ...

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and ot ...

, and

Murray Schisgal Murray Joseph Schisgal (November 25, 1926 – October 1, 2020) was an American playwright and screenwriter. Hampton was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. In 1984, he ...

. In 1979, they created the Petit Montparnasse theatre on the site of a former warehouse. In 1984, Schmidt retired, and Myriam Colombi succeeded him, renovating the theatre and adding a bar-restaurant. The current capacity of the main theatre is seven hundred and fifteen seats. In 1998, renovation and expansion of the Petit Montparnasse began, and it became a hall with two hundred seats, finally reopening in November 2003. The Théâtre Montparnasse-Gaston Baty was designated a historic monument on 3 April 1984.

Productions since 1930

Productions by Gaston Baty

* 1930:

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François V ...

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

* 1930: The Doctor in Spite of Himself by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

* 1930: Le Sourd ou l'auberge pleine by Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Choudard-Desforges * 1931: Wasteland by Jean-Victor Pellerin * 1931: Danube red by Bernard Zimmer * 1932: Bifur by

Simon Gantillon Simon Gantillon (7 January 1887 in Lyon – 9 September 1961 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a 20th-century French screenwriter and playwright. Filmography ; Screenwriter * 1932: '' Sergeant X'' by Vladimir Strizhevsky * 1938: ''Gibraltar'' by Fedor ...

* 1932: Café-Tabac by Denys Amiel * 1932: As You Desire Me by

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

* 1933: Crime and Punishment by

Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influenti ...

* 1934: Round trip from Jacques Chabannes * 1934: Prosper by Lucienne Favre * 1935: Hotel masks by John Albert * 1935:

Les Caprices de Marianne ''Les caprices de Marianne'' is a two-act opéra comique by Henri Sauguet with a French libretto by Jean-Pierre Gredy after Alfred de Musset. It was first performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1954, with the Orchestre de la Société des C ...

Alfred de Musset Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...

* 1936:

Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' (; ), commonly known as simply ''Madame Bovary'', is the début novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, originally published in 1856 and 1857. The eponymous character, Emma Bovary, lives beyond he ...

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

* 1937: The Failures by Henri-René Lenormand * 1937:

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

* 1937: Madame Capet by Marcelle Maurette * 1938: Arden of Feversham by Henri-René Lenormand * 1938: Dulcinea

* 1939: Manon Lescaut of Marcelle Maurette by the

Abbe Prevost Abbe may refer to: People * Abbe (name) Places * Abbe (crater), a lunar impact crater that is located in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon * Lake Abbe, African lake * Abbe Falls, waterfalls in India Other uses * Abbé, the Fren ...

* 1940:

Phèdre ''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere With ...

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tr ...

* 1940: A boy at Very by Eugene Labiche * 1941: Mary Stuart by Marcelle Maurette * 1941:

The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunke ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

* 1942:

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

* 1944: The Grand Poucet by Claude-André Puget * 1944: Emily Brontë, pièce en 3 actes et 9 tableaux by Simone * 1945:

Lorenzaccio ''Lorenzaccio'' is a French Play (theatre), play of the Romantic period written by Alfred de Musset in 1834, set in 16th-century Florence, and depicting Lorenzino de' Medici, who killed Florence's tyrant, Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, ...

* 1947: The Love for Three Oranges by Alexandre Arnoux

Productions by Marguerite Jamois

* 1943:

Hedda Gabler ''Hedda Gabler'' () is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance, although he remained back-stage.Meyer, Michael Lever ...

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

* 1946:

Mourning Becomes Electra ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932, starring Lee Ba ...

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

* 1949: Snow by Marcelle Maurette and Georgette Paul * 1951:

Dangerous Liaisons ''Dangerous Liaisons'' is a 1988 American period romantic drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his 1985 play ''Les Liaisons dangereuses'', itself adapted from the 1782 French novel of the s ...

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (; 18 October 1741 – 5 September 1803) was a French novelist, official, Freemason and army general, best known for writing the epistolary novel '' Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (''Dangerous Liaisons ...

* 1955: The Teahouse of the August Moon by John Patrick * 1956:

The Diary of Anne Frank ''The Diary of a Young Girl'', commonly referred to as ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of t ...

Frances Goodrich Frances Goodrich (December 21, 1890 – January 29, 1984) was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her hu ...

and

Albert Hackett Albert Maurice Hackett (February 16, 1900 – March 16, 1995) was an American actor, dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich. Their film work includes the first three instalments in ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montparnasse, Theatre Theatres in Paris Buildings and structures in the 14th arrondissement of Paris Monuments and memorials in Paris