The Theatre Industry in Nineteenth-Century France

There was always a risk, before and during the French Revolution and even occasionally after it, for peaceful citizens visiting the theatre to find themselves embroiled in rough and violent incidents. Audiences were always noisy, apt to interrupt performances and now and then squabbles would lead to fighting, with the possibility of fatal consequences. Disorder was more likely to occur in the provinces than in the capital where, thanks largely to the stern edicts against most forms of misbehaviour, there were fewer instances of trouble-makers causing riots. Thus, a police ordinance of 2 April 1780 made it illegal ‘to shout or make any noise before the performance begins, and in the course of the play to blow whistles or boo, to put one's hat on one's head or interrupt the actors in any fashion and no matter on what pretext’. To ensure quiet behaviour, an earlier ordinance had established a military guard at the two Comediés, consisting originally of about thirty fusiliers, increased by 1788 to fifty-six at the Comedié-Française, sixty at the Opera, and sixty-seven at the Comédie-Italienne. They were stationed too at the minor theatres, as is evident from a passage in Mercier's Tableau de Paris: