Come stroll with me…

…through the fabulous city of Paris…

Today, we're taking the metro to Place de la Concorde at one end of the Champs-Élysées, one of the most famous and busiest thoroughfares in the world.  Just take a look at this street.  You can stand here in the middle of the road, looking directly at the Arc de Triomphe - wanted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806 but finally inaugurated by the King Louis-Philippe in 1836.  Turning your back on the Arc, you face the peace and quiet of the Jardin des Tuileries with the Louvre straight ahead.  It's about a twently minute stroll from here to the Louvre and that gives me plenty of time to tell you all about Jean-Baptiste Poquelin.

In January 1622, Jean-Baptiste was born into a wealthy family, here in the city of Paris.  He was well educated, and after working for some years as an itinerant actor he began to be noticed.  I guess that, when you have such benefactors as the Duc de Orléans - Louis 14's brother - you are bound to be noticed by the King himself at some point.

Jean-Baptiste, much better known to you and I by his stage name of Molière, became the go-to scriptwriter and actor of his day.  His troupe of actors was known as the 'Troupe du Roi' and the royal patronage brought Molière a suizable pension and guaranteed him an audience.  Any of this sounding vaguely familiar yet?

As we leave the Tuileries we're going to take the rue Rivoli down to where it interescts with rue de Rohan and we'll take a left here and stroll onto avenue l'Opéra and pause for a moment.  We are now standing outside the Comédie-Française.  Founded in 1680 by Louis 14, this is one of the oldest working theatres in France.  It is also the only theatre in France that is state controlled and that has maintained a permanent troupe of actors.  The works of Molière, Racine and Corneille, and many, many others have been preformed in this building.  That's 340 years-worth of great actors' feet treading those boards!  Well, perhaps not exactly those particular pieces of wood that are currently on the stage at this moment… but you can perhaps understand my sense of wonder when I remind you that I've been treading the boards since I was a kid of 6.

But, back to Molière.  He wrote more than 30 plays and across differing genres.  His experience as an actor and his use of comic timing enlabled him to write farces and comedies that are still performed today.  He also wrote opinion pieces that got the court talking and, at times, also got him into hot water.  His plays have been translated into every major language.  His texts have been studied, crtitiqued and, are regularly quoted.  His plays are performed more often at the Comédie-Française than any other writer.

Sadly, Molière himself was not able to see his work on the stage at the Comédie as he died in 1673 on February 17th.  He suffered from TB, and having given a performance as Argan in Le Malade Imaginaire - The Hypochondriac - he suffered a fit of coughing and died shortly afterwards.

And that familiar thing?  Well, Molière was and still is, the epitome of French theatre.  So, as an actor, I've spent my life learning and reciting Shakespeare and I think I can honestly say that, had I been born in France, it would very probably have been the work of Molière that I studied instead!