Slingshot at the Mazarine library!

FFounded in 1643 by Cardinal Mazarin, the Institute’s library, installed twenty years later in one of the wings of the Collège des Quatre-Nations, on the banks of the Seine, is the oldest public library in France. Nicknamed “la Mazarine” in homage to its first patron, it has nearly 600,000 volumes. Among them is a collection that is unique in the world, a collection of some 6,000 pamphlets, sometimes pornographic, always violently critical of the minister of Louis XIII and then of Louis XIV: “the mazarinades”!

“Most of those that have reached us were collected at the time of their publication by Mazarin’s personal librarian, Gabriel Naudé, at the cardinal’s express request,” said Yann Sordet, director of the institution. One of the most prolix and most unleashed authors of mazarinades is undeniably Paul Scarron (1610-1660), whose libels are as ferocious as they are comical. Seduced by the energy of his satires which resonate beyond the historical context of the XVII^e century, Charles Di Meglio, founder of the Oghma company, undertook to adapt three of these texts for the theater.

Created during the 2021 edition of the festival dedicated to the performing arts from the Middle Ages to the 17th century^e century, which he organizes every summer in Black Périgord, the show by this 35-year-old director is replayed this Saturday, January 8 in the reading room of the Mazarine, before being repeated at Studio Raspail (still in Paris) March 12.

Cheeky

The freedom of tone of these pamphlets echoes the wind of revolt which blew over France between 1648 and 1653 at the time of the Fronde. The three texts selected by Charles Di Meglio bear witness to this. The Pleasant Conference of two peasants from Saint-Ouen and Montmorency on the affairs of the times, The Crushed Tarantele and The comic imprecation are vindictive texts.

“Their effervescence, the unbridled energy of their writing and the modernity of their words struck me when I read them for the first time. I immediately said to myself that it would be interesting to make them heard again. Especially in the troubled period we are going through ”, confides the 30-something, who has chosen to have these texts played by three actors in period costumes, sometimes masked, accompanied by music and puppet numbers.

Contacted, the director of Mazarine wanted to see the show before welcoming it. “I found the direction ingenious and Charles’s words interesting. Excited by the spectacle, I submitted the idea to the Chancellor of the Institute, who has long been in favor of the idea of ​​opening our house to new audiences, ”points out Yann Sordet. “Playing within the framework of the Mazarine, in the cardinal’s own furniture, gives this spectacle an incredible relief”, enthuses Charles Di Meglio.

The director sees Scarron’s biting humor as an anticipation of the comic flashes of the contemporary satirical press. Reason for which he undertook to re-edit these texts and to offer them for sale on the site of his company. “There is in Scarron the same comic inventiveness as in Molière”, he continues. The director is also preparing to stage, in the courtyard of the Institute, a little-known comedy by Molière: Jealousy of the smeared. The creation of this new show is scheduled for next May.

* A Sling Wind, show directed by Charles Di Meglio, with Alexandre Michaud, Romaric Olarte and Raphaël Robert. Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes.