The theatrical venue in the 17th-century Nouvelle-France. The celebrative banquet in the Jesuit colleges

Abstract

Documentary sources lead us to identify the banquet of the Nouvelle-France Jesuit colleges as a sociopolitical theatrical venue. Beginning with the first attested French-Canadian réception (stage set for entry into court), Le Théâtre de Neptune en la Nouvelle-France (1606) by Lescarbot, I document and analyse the 17^th-century political convivial celebrations of Jesuit colleges, i.e. the banquets organized for the French governors. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the performative nature of the celebratory banquet goes on: réceptions are merged with tragicomic repertoires and scenes from Commedia dell'Arte. Epicentre of the relations between the theatre and its socio-political context, the Jesuit banquet turns out as a theatrical venue, allowing us to identify the processes of dramaturgical and spectacular contamination at the origin of the scenic arts of North American modernity.