JEAN RACINE

Après le succès rencontré par Esther, Racine publie Athalie en 1691, une nouvelle pièce à sujet biblique pour les pensionnaires dune célèbre institution scolaire, la Maison royale de Saint-Louis, cré

Britannicus est la quatrième grande tragédie de Racine. Pour la première fois, l’auteur prend son sujet dans l’histoire romaine. L’empereur Claude a eu de Messaline un fils, Britannicus, avant d’épou

Plutôt que «Britannicus», victime assez falote de Néron et d''Agrippine, Racine aurait dû donner à sa tragédie le nom de l''un ou l''autre des deux monstres qui s''affrontent à travers lui. Leur «amb

Andromaque est une tragédie en cinq actes et en vers de Jean Racine écrite en 1667 et représentée pour la première fois au château du Louvre le 17 novembre 1667. Elle comporte 1648 alexandrins.Largum

Lhistoire se déroule sur les rivages dAulis, où les Grecs se préparent à aller attaquer Troie. Mais ils ne peuvent atteindre Troie, car les dieux retiennent les vents nécessaires au départ de lexpédi

Phèdre est une tragédie en cinq actes et en vers de Jean Racine créée le 1er janvier 1677 à Paris sous le titre Phèdre et Hippolyte. Racine nadopta le titre de Phèdre quà partir de la seconde édition

The critical event in Berenice, the death of Tituss father, the Emperor Vespasian, happens a week before the play opens. Thereafter Titus knows that his separation from Berenice is inevitable. The breaking off of a great love affair involves too the hopes of Antiochus, himself long in love with Berenice. The play pushes all three of its principals to the brink, not of revenge but of self-murder, before in her sublime last speech Berenice redeems and directs them all in an act of collective abnegation.Many tears are shed, but not a drop of blood. The effect is unconventional, and profound: the pained acceptance of the irreconcilable in human affairs, and the surrender, by each of the main characters, of the person they most love.Bajazet is Racines most violent drama; it ends, like Phedre, with a female characters on-stage suicide, here the culmination of a vividly described sequence of off-stage murders. The setting, in a claustrophobic space within the harem at Constantinople, menaced from both without and within, seems to license a violence of emotion as well as of deed.Violent too are the repeated reversals of fortune, and the terrifying acceleration of the play towards its inexorable catastrophe. Alan Hollinghursts translation of Berenice premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in October 2012 and Bajazet, at the Almeida Theatre, London, in November 1990.

Titus, emperor of Rome, wants to marry Berenice, queen of Palestine, but decides that Rome will not be able to handle having him marry a foreign queen. Berenice refuses to stay in this case and leaves Rome. Unlike many of the other Racine plays, there actually are survivors (albeit, broken-hearted survivors) at the end of this one!

Another tragedy by Racine, based on the historical character and career of Mithridates circa 63 BCE. Closing with sorrow and lamentation and promises of a "search for vengeance".

Racines version of the time-honored story of Iphigenia was acted for the first time in 1674. The model upon which it is shaped is the "Iphigenia in Aulis" of his favorite Euripides, but the French poet has heightened the romantic interest and complicated the plot by the important part which Eriphyle is made to play.

Britannicus is son and heir of the Roman emperor Claudius. However, this does not please Nero, who wants both throne and Britannicuss fiancee Junia.

With Phedre, Racine chose once more a subject from Greek mythology, already treated by Greek and Roman tragic poets, notably by Euripides in Hippolytus and Seneca in Phaedra. In the absence of her royal husband Thesee, Phedre ends by declaring her love to Hippolyte, Thesees son from a previous marriage.

The King is missing, presumed dead. His warrior son is braced for inheritance but is betrayed by his heart. Phaedra, the tormented Queen, has a terrifying secret that will shake Athens to its core. Based on EuripidesHippolytus, Racines Phaedra reveals the devastating potential of love and the brutality of human nature.Phaedra, in this new version by Frank McGuinness, premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in April 2006.

C'est la plus célèbre des tragédies de Racine et la plus trouble. Elle emprunte à la Grèce, patrie de Sigmund Freud dans le domaine de l'imaginaire, la légende dont elle fait une intrigue. Se heurter au tabou de l'inceste, c'est se condamner à mort : alors seulement le jour reprend sa pureté. « La psychanalyse, a écrit Raymond Picard, n'est guère qu'une exploitation peu éclairée de la psychologie racinienne. » Psychologie, mythe, récit épique, ici tout est violence : le véritable monstre ne sort pas des flots, il est enfermé dans l'héroïne avec une incroyable audace - comme il le sera dans Athalie.