Inaugurated on September 1, 1791, this theater was, according to tradition, built with stones from the Bastille. A tradition that must not have bothered its owner Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais, who put on some of his patriotic plays here during the Revolution. Some elements of its current façade reflect the theater’s original décor, closed in 1807.
Patriotic and Literary Annals of France, and Political Affairs of Europe, December 24, 1789, p. 4
During the Ancien Régime, The Marriage of Figaro (1784) was considered to be a rather insolent, but agreeable play. In 1789, under the context of the revolutionary troubles, it was suddenly perceived as a political accusation against the absolute monarchy, as the journalist from the Patriotic and Literary Annals wrote: “At a performance of The Marriage of Figaro, we sang the verses at the end of this Comedy, which ends, as everyone knows, with these words: ‘Everything ends with a song.’ An aristocrat in the front boxes yelled: ‘encore, encore,’ as if to invoke French frivolity; but a patriot from the orchestra, with a loud and resounding voice, got up and yelled to the actors: ‘Everything ends with Cannons!’” The Theater Beaumarchais, where the play was performed, thus became a symbol of the Revolution…even though its owner was not really a revolutionary!
