Comédie-Française & Molière

This is the Comédie-Française, the oldest active theatre company in the world, founded in 1680. And it all begins with one man: Molière.

Molière was France's most celebrated playwright and actor. He wrote sharp, funny, often brutal comedies about human vanity and hypocrisy. In 1673, during a performance of his own play "The Imaginary Invalid," he collapsed on stage. He died that same evening. The irony is almost too perfect: France's greatest comic genius, dying while playing a man who pretended to be sick.

Seven years after his death, his former troupe merged with others by royal decree, and the Comédie-Française was born. The hall you're looking at, the Salle Richelieu, has been its heart ever since.

But the Revolution nearly tore it apart. The troupe split over politics, and several actors were actually imprisoned for performing a play considered too sympathetic to the king. They barely escaped the guillotine.

The theatre survived. It was reinstated as France's national theatre, and the classics, Molière, Racine, Corneille, have been performed here continuously ever since. Not preserved behind glass, but spoken aloud, on this stage, tonight.