Folk Art, Faith, and Nationalism: Popular Theatre in the Provinces

Abstract

This chapter offers new evidence of the strength of French peripheries against the centre during the Third Republic. In contrast to the fragility of state-led initiatives, popular theatre flourished in the provinces, whether associated with local folklore, Catholic mystery plays, or patriotic neo-Classicism. Here, new light is shed on the Breton plays and productions of Anatole Le Braz and Joseph Le Bayon; the operas, plays, and poetry staged at the Roman amphitheatre of Orange; the folkloric endeavours of Maurice Pottecher in the Vosges; and the populist efforts of Pierre Corneille Saint-Marc in Poitou. At the same time, the chapter reveals unexpected tensions in the relationship between nation and region: regionalist playwrights who preferred to live in Paris, for example, as well as stridently regionalist productions that were vitally dependent on Parisian support.