Molière in costume

With Molière in costumes , visitors will discover several decades of theatrical creation through 150 costumes and a set of models, photographs and audio-visual recordings.

From room to room, the public is invited to find them according to a course organized around the themes which punctuate the work of Molière: vices and virtues, satire of medicine and religion, mockery of grotesque bourgeois, condition of women, jealousy and infidelity… Selected because they are both singular and emblematic of a director – Dom Juan by Louis Jouvet, Dandin by Roger Planchon or The Imaginary Invalid by Jean Marie Villégier – or a costume designer – Suzanne Lalique, Christian Bérard or Patrice Cauchetier – costumes also reflect trends whether it is that of historical reconstruction, fashion of the time or historical transposition or simply the product of the imagination of a Creator.

This is how the public will be able to discover the majestic caftan of Louis Seigner as Monsieur Jourdain in the production of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, on stage by Jean Meyer in 1951, the elegant dress of Celimene (Madeleine Renaud) drawn by Marcel Escoffier for Le Misanthrope directed by Jean-Louis Barrault or the costume of the precious Philaminte performed by Georges Wilson for Les Learned women given to the Théâtre de Chaillot in 1956.

An important place will naturally be given at the Comédie-Française, still today called”Maison de Molière”, founded in 1680, seven years after the death of the author, all the pieces of which are listed in the directory. The pieces presented will mainly come from from the collections of the CNCS, the Comédie-Française and the Performing Arts Department of the BnF
but also borrowed from theatres, companies or cultural institutions, such as the Théâtre National Popular (Villeurbanne), the Jean House Villar.

The visit will end in fireworks by the evocation comedy-ballet, a dramatic genre combining music, song and dance, invented by Molière with the complicity of Lully, and within which, Le Bourgeois gentleman and The Imaginary Invalid, constitute masterpieces.