De la police des spectacles à la civilisation des mœurs théâtrales: domestication du public et production des affects chez Louis‐Sébastien Mercier

Louis‐Sébastien Mercier's conception of theatre revolves around the audience. He writes extensively about its social composition, its patterns of attendance and, in particular, the attitudes of parterre spectators. If Mercier goes furthest in acknowledging the audience, particularly the popular audience, as the ultimate judge of a performance, it is also he who betrays most explicitly the contradictions in his aesthetic and ideological stance. He places remarkable faith in the judgement of the people, arguing that the playwright should be subservient to a popular audience and that access to the theatre be made more democratic. He wants to see parterre audiences seated, for they alone are capable of judging the quality of the plays they see. He never misses a chance to taunt actors for their arrogance or authors for their pretensions. He believes in the educational value of a theatre that can inculcate civic and patriotic pride and can teach a popular audience its political responsibilities. And he pleads for the relaxation of police controls on playhouses as the only way to allow for the unhindered development of a more civil theatre culture. At the same time, however, he acknowledges that the creation of a ‘popular theatre’ is not easy, and is well aware of both the risks of manipulating or over‐controlling the audience and the dangerous potential inherent in exploiting theatricality to modify public opinion.