The Theatre > History

A.Dumas : "The Odéon once put on a performance for one single member of the audience who refused to have his money refunded, insisting that the performance be given for him, and then booed. But when he booed, the unfortunate man had presented the weapon to attack himself, for the manager called a police officer and, arguing that the person booing had disturbed the perfor-mance, had him put out."

Decrees and orders from the Ministry for Trade, Public Works and Fine Arts transferred the Odéon, making it available to the Comédie Française and various other theatre companies, earning it the derogatory nickname of "Omnibus Theatre" and losing any support it had from the public. Efforts made when Lireux and Bocage were in charge produced a number of successes for the theatre, with leading actresses such as Marie Dorval, Rachel and Mademoiselle George.

However, financial problems only got worse, until the theatre was closed down in the wake of the February 1848 revolution. Théophile Gautier was very interested in the theatre and reported on this strange existence: "The Odéon can neither live nor die, which is the problem. There have been occasional bad times and good times, but the crises never last very long. The dying creature soon comes back to life, but only to collapse in a state of lethargy a few months later. No one can kill it, or revive it; it opens, but only to close again; it closes, but only to open again."