Women on Stage in the 17th C.

Women's theater took off in the 1650s when socialites, poets, and novelists saw their plays published and performed at the Court and in the great Parisian theaters. The heroines of renowned male playwrights question a patriarchal society where freedom and love are difficult to reconcile and question the history, politics and roles of each one, while adhering to the new codes of classicism. From the astonishing comedy by Isaac de Bensérade, Iphis and Iante (1634), one of the first in France to openly evoke female homosexuality, to the tragic comedy, Le Favori by Mme de Villedieu (1665), the first play written by a woman and performed by a professional troupe in Paris and in front of the King in Versailles, we shall see that the “Grand Siècle” was not exactly what one might think.
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