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4 unusual facts about Mademoiselle Montansier


Mademoiselle Montansier

Forced to leave the Palais-Royal by decree in 1806 (the neighbouring Comédiens-Français finding that she kept them in the shade) but still infatigable, she convinced Napoleon to authorise her to build a new theatre on the boulevard Montmartre, despite a decree limiting the number of theatres in Paris to just 8.

Profiting from the French Revolution, she set herself up in Paris in the company of her lover, Honoré Bourdon (stage name "de Neuville"), and took possession of the Théâtre des Beaujolais under the arcades of the Palais-Royal.

At 14 she fled from the Ursuline convent in Bordeaux, she was there engaged by an acting troupe and — in love with a handsome young actor — embarked for America.

She and 85 artistes and employees of her theatre followed the armies of Charles François Dumouriez into the Austrian Netherlands, helping at the battle of Jemmapes and then taking over the leadership of the troop at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels in January 1793 (renaming that company "Comédiens de la République française").



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