‘Faire de contraintes théâtre’: Staging Bajazet at the Comédie-Française and the aesthetics of violence in performance

Eric Ruf’s 2017 staging of Bajazet (Racine 1672) at the Comédie-Française had to undergo dramatic changes for the 2020–21 season to adapt to the constraints brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of adversity, Comédie-Française invented théâtre à la table , an approach to staging inspired by the performance space, Studio Marigny, which was regularly used for radio theatre. This théâtre à la table production had no costumes, sound or props with the exception of a table, chairs, play scripts and lights. This bare staging contrasted dramatically with the earlier production and affected in a direct manner the dynamic and the representation of the main characters (Roxane and Acomat) through the way violence is displayed and aestheticized. This article will compare the two productions to argue that the 2020 staging, although innovative, undermines the subversive potential of the play. The constraint-driven choices adopted by Ruf in terms of costumes, body movement and props alongside the focus on rhetoric to convey violence and power, allow characters who stereotypically embody these ideas to take centre stage, in this case Acomat (a man), to the detriment of characters who are not traditionally seen as powerful and violent (in the world of the play and outside it) in this staging Roxane (a woman).