féerie - Credo Reference

féerie
From "The Cambridge Guide to Theatre"
The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, © Cambridge University Press 2000
Type of French spectacular show, whose action derives from magical, fantastic or supernatural elements;
heavy on production values and stage machinery. Its forebears are the pièces à machines produced at the
Théâtre du Marais in the mid-17th century, with classical mythology supplying the plots. Abbé Boyer's
Ulysse dans l'Île de Circe (1648) was a grandiose example, while Molière and Corneille's Psyché (1670)
represents a pocket version. In the late 18th century, the fantastic infiltrated fairground pantomimes, as in
Arlequin dans un oeuf at the Théâtre des Jeunes-Artistes, to produce in the 19th century the synthetic
féerie. The first true success was Le Pied du mouton (Théâtre de la Gaîté, 1806), a much revived
extravaganza in which a magic sheep's trotter unleashes a host of miracles. It was superseded by Les
Pilules du diable (Cirque Olympique, 1839) and a succession of invariably successful shows, such as La
Biche au bois (known in the English-speaking world as The White Fawn), La Chatte Blanche and Peau
d'Âne, based on fairy tales and romances. Since the transformations, tricks and apotheoses required a large
stage, the Châtelet and then the Porte-Saint-Martin (see boulevard) under Marc Fournier became its
favourite haunts. Romantic authors appreciated the dream-like qualities of the féerie (even Flaubert turned
his hand to writing one, which went unproduced); it exercised an important influence on the development of
Burlesque, musical comedy and early cinema. LS
The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, © Cambridge University Press 2000
Persistent URL to the Entry: http://public.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupthea/f%C3%A9erie/0
APA
Féerie. (2000). In M. Banham (Ed.), The Cambridge guide to theater. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press. Retrieved from
http://public.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupthea/f%C3%A9erie/0
MLA
"Féerie." The Cambridge Guide to Theater, edited by Martin Banham, Cambridge University Press,
2000. Credo Reference, http://public.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupthea/f%C3%A9erie/0.
Accessed 15 Feb 2017.
Chicago
"Féerie". 2000. In The Cambridge Guide to Theater, edited by Martin Banham. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. http://public.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupthea/f%C3%A9erie/0
Harvard
Féerie (2000). [Online]. In M Banham (ed.). The Cambridge guide to theater. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press. Available from:
http://public.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupthea/f%C3%A9erie/0 [Accessed 15 February 2017].