Molière’s Theatres

On 12 September 1643, the Illustre Théâtre, of which Molière was a member, rented the jeu de paume des Mestayers with the intention of converting it into a theatre. The first building in which Molière performed professionally was, therefore, a former tennis court. Paume had been popular since the Middle Ages, but had declined by the seventeenth century, leaving many buildings empty. There was at this time only one purpose-built theatre in Paris: the Hôtel de Bourgogne, constructed by the Confrérie de la Passion in 1548 for the production of mystery plays, on which it held the monopoly in the capital. These were soon banned, and the Confrérie profited from its premises by renting them out to the companies of actors newly circulating in France following the end of the Wars of Religion. Since its monopoly was interpreted as applying to all theatrical activity in the capital, troupes performing elsewhere, in an empty jeu de paume for example, were heavily fined. This was the situation until the 1630s, when, gradually, two more or less permanent troupes were established in the capital, one at the Hôtel de Bourgogne and the other in a jeu de paume in the Marais district, called simply the Théâtre du Marais. It was with these that the Illustre Théâtre had to compete.

Tennis courts did not make ideal theatres. They were long, narrow buildings (a three-in-one ratio of length to width was standard), and the sightlines from anywhere other than directly in front of the stage were poor. It had been thought that early companies converted these buildings by installing a second gallery opposite the existing spectators' gallery and building a simple trestle stage at one end.