Race and Theatre in France: by Sylvie Chalaye

These well-researched essays speak to the situation of African-descended artists on the French stage, especially in prestigious government-subsidized theatres. Through documentation, historical analysis, close attention to productions, and witnessing by Black French-speaking artists, Chalaye uncovers and critiques the unacknowledged racialization (and racism) that have circumscribed the careers of Black actors. She ascribes responsibility for this frustrating situation in large part to the lingering impact of the colonial empire on the French imaginary, one that sees “otherness” in French people perceived as non-white. She calls for a recognition of how “race” and racial tropes have operated in French theatre and she advocates exploding the concept of “race”, while creating a theatre that represents the multicultural country that France has become. A translator’s preface examines the concepts of “race”, “nation”, and “theatre” as they operate in France and in the Anglo-American sphere, inviting readers to compare the impact of multiculturalism with the notion of the universal human. Sylvie Chalaye is the foremost French scholar of theatre in French by African and African descended artists. She is professor of theatre at the University of Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, co-founder of the journal Africultures, and director of the Research Laboratory SeFeA. Recent publications include: Scènes et détours d’Afrique: Les Aventuriers de la coopération théâtrale de Jean-Marie Serreau à Christian Schiaretti (Passages, 2022) and (with Judith G. Miller) Contemporary Francophone African Plays: An Anthology (Bucknell, 2024). Her book, Race et théâtre en France: un impensé politique, won the Prix André Malraux in 2020.