French Theater in Warsaw during the Reign of King Augustus III

Bohdan Korzeniewski

Abstract

This article contains reconstruction of theater playbills from 1762, copied by the author from the originals held at the Załuski Collection (Polish National Library) before it was destroyed in the World War II. The playbills advertise performances by Albani’s French acting troupe, which visited Warsaw in 1762 and 1763. In the introduction, the author describes the nature and research potential of these documents. Having served as both programs and advertising pamphlets, they were printed in French and Polish, and listed the title and author of the play, ticket prices and performance dates, but not the cast. The author argues that by juxtaposing this information with other historical sources, it is possible to reconstruct the repertoire, the way performances were organized, and the conditions in which theater functioned in Poland in that period. The playbills also shed new light on the theater life in Saxon Poland (1697–1763; reign of the Wettin dynasty). Contrary to common belief, they show that performances of French theatre were organized regularly, and that Albani brought to Warsaw an ambitious repertoire: Molière, Marivaux, Regnard, Destouches, Dancourt, Brueys, La Fontaine, and – for the first time in Poland – Diderot’s Le Père de famille.