Chapter 3 - Performing on the Periphery: Military–Theatrical Experiences at the Théâtre de la Marine (Brest) and the Comédie du Cap (Cap-Français)

Summary

Chapter 3 provides a critical reconstitution of pre-revolutionary military performance environments. First is a description of the development and operations of the Théâtre de la Marine in Brest, the only public theater that was built and financed by France’s war administration and where Joseph Patrat’s manipulated version of Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s Le Déserteur made its metropolitan French debut. The chapter’s second part focuses on the Comédie (Theater) in Cap-Français (now Cap-Haïtien), the largest and most frequented theater in the colonial Caribbean. In addition to describing the military, racial, and gendered features of theatrical life in Saint-Domingue, this chapter connects Cap-Français’ Comédie, which was built in 1764 and which catered in part to the city’s large soldier population, to a network of military-infused theaters in French provincial cities such as Metz, Besançon, Lille, Perpignan, and Brest.