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| Cahiers du théâtre | |
|---|---|
| Title | Cahiers du théâtre |
| Discipline | Theatre studies |
| Language | French |
| Country | France |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
Cahiers du théâtre was a French theatre periodical that examined dramatic practice, performance, dramaturgy, and stagecraft through critical essays, interviews, and archival research. Founded amid postwar cultural debates, the review connected practitioners and scholars across Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and international networks, engaging with avant-garde and institutional theaters, festivals, companies, and conservatories. The journal intersected with municipal and national institutions, independent troupes, and academic departments, shaping discussions around staging, repertoire, and theatrical historiography.
The journal emerged during a period marked by debates involving Comédie-Française, Théâtre National Populaire, Festival d'Avignon, La Colline, Théâtre du Soleil, and Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, reflecting currents from Surrealism, Existentialism, Structuralism, Situationist International, and Postmodernism. Early contributors debated repertory choices alongside figures associated with Jean Vilar, Antonin Artaud, Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and Jerzy Grotowski, responding to trends seen at events such as Festival d'Automne à Paris, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Salzburg Festival, and the Venice Biennale. Institutional changes including reforms at Conservatoire de Paris, proposals by Ministry of Culture, and policies linked to ministers like André Malraux and Jack Lang shaped the periodical's remit. The journal's trajectory intersected with publishing houses such as Gallimard, Éditions du Seuil, Éditions de Minuit, and cultural presses linked to universities like Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Paris Nanterre, and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Editors drew on networks spanning directors, playwrights, critics, and academics connected to Gaston Bachelard, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jacques Rancière, and Pierre Bourdieu. Contributors included practitioners and theorists who worked with or wrote about Peter Brook, Peter Handke, Heiner Müller, Tadeusz Kantor, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, Harold Pinter, and Yasmina Reza. Critics and historians such as Lionel Abel, Lionel Trilling, Georges Banu, Richard Schechner, Martin Esslin, Erika Fischer-Lichte, and Susan Sontag framed debates alongside playwrights from companies like Complicité, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Living Theatre, and Théâtre de Complicité. The editorial board engaged with institutions including Comédie de Béthune, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Royal Court Theatre, Abbey Theatre, and archives like Bibliothèque nationale de France and British Library.
The journal covered dramaturgical analysis, production notebooks, interviews, and translation projects involving texts by Molière, William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Federico García Lorca, Tennessee Williams, Anton Chekhov, and Sophocles. Thematic dossiers examined staging strategies influenced by Stanislavski, Meisner technique, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Tadeusz Kantor; scenography discussions referenced work by Adolphe Appia, Gordon Craig, Santiago Sierra, and Robert Wilson. Performance studies articles intersected with scholarship by Erving Goffman and Victor Turner and festivals such as Avignon Festival, Biennale di Venezia, and Performa. Thematic issues addressed adaptations of works associated with Jean Racine, Pierre Corneille, Mikhail Bulgakov, Bertolt Brecht and contemporary reworkings by Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill, Rodrigo García, and Ariane Mnouchkine. Essays engaged with debates around translation by referencing translators like Stanisław Barańczak, Jean-Luc Godard (as collaborator), and dramaturgs linked to Peter Hall and Richard Eyre.
Published on a quarterly schedule, the review circulated through booksellers, university departments, and cultural centers in cities including Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, and Bordeaux. Distribution channels involved partnerships with independent bookstores such as Shakespeare and Company, university presses like Presses Universitaires de France, and international distributors operating in New York City, London, Berlin, Rome, and Madrid. Subscriptions were marketed to staff at Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique, researchers at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and members of professional bodies including Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques and unions related to SACD and SPECTACLE. Special issues were launched at venues such as Maison de la Culture de Grenoble and bookstores like Librairie Gallimard.
Critics compared its editorial stance with periodicals like Théâtre/Public, Theatre Journal, Modern Drama, and TDR: The Drama Review. The journal influenced programming at Festival d'Avignon, repertory choices at Comédie-Française, pedagogical approaches at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, and research agendas at Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and university departments in Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and Goldsmiths, University of London. Scholars cited its archives alongside collections at Institut Mémoires de l'édition contemporaine and oral histories recorded with companies such as Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre (UK). Reviews in outlets like Le Monde, Libération, The New York Times, and The Guardian framed its legacy within debates on canon formation, dramaturgy, and cultural policy.
Special dossiers focused on movements and figures: dossiers on Surrealism, Dada, Absurdism, and profiles of artists including Jean Cocteau, Georges Feydeau, Jacques Copeau, André Antoine, Sarah Bernhardt, Edmond Rostand, Konstantin Stanislavski, and Constantin Stanislavski-related studies. Series explored archive projects on companies like Théâtre National de Chaillot, revivals discussed alongside productions by Philippe Adrien, Antoine Vitez, Jean-Pierre Vincent, and international case studies of The Wooster Group, Compagnie Marie Chouinard, and Pina Bausch works. Issue themes ranged from translation of dramatic texts to scenography retrospectives on designers such as Isamu Noguchi and maskwork traditions linked to Commedia dell'arte troupes.
Category:Theatre magazines