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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2009

Nicholas Ridout
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
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Summary

Alas! That first matinée was to prove a bitter disappointment.

The boy Marcel, narrator of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, goes to the theatre for the first time. He is to see a performance of Racine's Phèdre, given by Berma, the greatest actress of the day. He is attending the theatre against the advice of his doctor, who predicts that his illness will be exacerbated, and therefore that he will ‘in the long run derive more pain than pleasure from the experience’. His parents, who had previously forbidden him to attend, have relented, his mother saying ‘“Very well, we don't want to make you unhappy – if you think you will enjoy it so very much, you must go”’. This situation causes him great anxiety: he does not wish to distress his mother by going to the theatre when she would rather he didn't. Even as it becomes clear that he is to go, and that his mother genuinely wants him to enjoy himself, his anxiety barely abates, since ‘this sort of obligation to find pleasure in the performance seemed to me very burdensome’.

But as the day of the performance dawns his joyful excitement at the prospect ahead of him overwhelms his anxiety, and he is full of pleasurable sensations. His pleasure increases once he has taken his seat. The theatre itself, the fact that he enjoys an unobscured view, the sounds of last minute preparations behind the lowered curtains all contribute to this pleasure.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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  • Introduction
  • Nicholas Ridout, Queen Mary University of London
  • Book: Stage Fright, Animals, and Other Theatrical Problems
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617669.001
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  • Introduction
  • Nicholas Ridout, Queen Mary University of London
  • Book: Stage Fright, Animals, and Other Theatrical Problems
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617669.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Nicholas Ridout, Queen Mary University of London
  • Book: Stage Fright, Animals, and Other Theatrical Problems
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617669.001
Available formats
×