Marais, Théâtre du

Marais, Théâtre du, Paris, early French theatre, which is thought to have opened on 31 Dec. 1634 in a converted tennis-court in the rue Vieille-du-Temple, with a company under Montdory which had been appearing in Corneille's early comedies, and was responsible early in 1637 for the production of his great tragedy Le Cid. Among other notable productions at this time was Tristan l'Hermite's La Mariane, in which Montdory gave a powerful rendering of Herod. After he left, the theatre went through some bad times. Its best actors joined the rival company at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, to which Corneille also gave his new plays, and those that were left were forced to revert to the playing of popular farces. They were however lucky in the return of Jodelet, for whom some excellent new farces were written, and later they specialized in spectacular performances with a good deal of imported Italian scenery and machinery. The theatre never regained the place it had held previously in public esteem, particularly after a bad fire in 1644 burnt down the old building. The contract for its replacement on the same site indicates that its overall dimensions were about 114 ft. by 36 ft. The newly housed company survived until 1673, when it was amalgamated with the company of Molière, who had just died, and by the combined companies' fusion in 1680 with that of the Hôtel de Bourgogne became part of the Comédie-Française, the Marais stage being finally abandoned.