http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2238-38752017v727 i Campinas State University (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil
[email protected] ii Campinas State University (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil
[email protected] Heloisa Pontes I Rafael do Nascimento Cesar II CITIES, STAGES AND AuDIENCES: RIo DE JANEIRo AND São PAulo IN TWo ACTS PROLOGuE “In the theatre, there are always three of us.” Unpacked, the phrase of the French writer Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824-1895) reveals the singularity of the show compared to the practice of reading. Virtually silent, the book “speaks in a low voice to a single person.” Theatre, though, addresses “the thousand or 1,500 people assembled and has its roots in the tribune and the public arena” (Dumas, fils cited in Charle, 2012: 215). The size of this estimate tells us much about the popular reach of this art form on the stages of the major European cities of the nineteenth century – Paris, London, Vienna and Berlin. As the historian Chris- tophe Charle demonstrates in Théâtres en capitales. Naissance de la société du 519, agosto, 2017 agosto, 519, – spectacle à Paris, Berlin, Londres et Vienne, the successful plays of the period spread new social representations far beyond those classes with ready access to lit- erature. Novels with print runs of around 100,000 copies only appeared towards the end of the nineteenth century. But plays performed more than a hundred times to large audiences had been frequent since the 1850s. The growing inter- est in the theatre was manifested on all sides: from the increasingly diversified public to the writers striving to make a name and some money as playwrights, accompanied by the swelling influx of would-be actors and directors.