Voies théâtrales pour le Bicentenaire Rejouer ou déjouer le patrimoine révolutionnaire ?

Performance holds a special place amongst the various celebrations of the Bicentennial. It enacts an abstract cultural event in a very lively way, using gesture and discourse that are believed to be from the revolutionary period. However, these devices are in fact presented through the distorting lenses of ideology and bias representations. Performance thus has an ambiguous relationship with the powers that be, even when the nature of the performance varies between a commemorative spance (Goude, Hossein, Béjart, Royal de Luxe) to an avant-garde or activist one (Planchon, Mnouchkine, Aillaud, Gatti, Chartreux, Jourdheuil and Sobel, Creuzevault). Setting aside living history and reenactment technique, this article highlights the double displacement of playing on or against the revolutionary heritage. This has translated into forms of spectacle varying between commercial display, freedom fight posturing and honoring cultural memory.