9. AT THE THEATER

Jules Verne
Around the World in 80 Days
Hetzel publishing house, Paris, 1881
MJV A378

Whereas in the original novel title « eighty » is written in letters, the number format was used for the play and its by-products..

Alphonse Liébert
Portrait of Adolphe d’Ennery
Photograph [circa 1875]
MJV E713

Around the World in 80 Days
Journal L’Univers illustré, November 14, 1874
MJV I139

This promotional illustration presents five tableaus from the play, including the episodes of the serpent cave and the attack of the train by the Indians.
The play Around the World in 80 Days is a fairy tale, a show in which scenes follow one another in a sensational staging. At the time, new theatres could accommodate up to 3,500 spectators in a vast space with a stage: staircases, scaffolding and balconies held a crowd of extras, enormous panoramas in movement, with life-size décors, boats and locomotives, and even a trained elephant.

Around the World in 80 Days
S.I.P., Paris, circa 1900
Stereoscopic views, black and white photographs
MJV G254

These stereoscopic photographs reproduce scenes as spectators could see them in the theatre.

Special programme at Châtelet theatre
Around the World in 80 Days
Le Monde théâtral, Paris, end of the 19th century
MJV H707

The play was staged in November 1874 at Porte Saint-Martin theatre where it was played 592 times. It arrived at Châtelet theatre in November 1886, where it was put on no less than 3,007 times until May 1940.

Around the World in 80 Days
Renaissance theatre, Nantes, 1875
MJV D274

Following the success in Paris of Around the World in 80 Days, the play was presented in several French towns, including in Nantes, in a new adaptation at the Renaissance theatre (a building which is no longer there) between December 19 and January 25, 1876.

Promotional ticket
Renaissance theatre, Nantes
Sauzé Frères, Perfume makers, Paris, [end of the 19th century]
MJV CP92

Phileas Fogg inkwell
Late 19th – early 20th century
MJV G3

The success of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days at the theatre gave rise to the production of a great many related items. True « merchandising » promoting the sale of related products: Phileas Fogg figurines, goose games, cube games, bingo games, puzzles, magic lantern slides, dishware, etc.

Around the World in 80 Days
Poster for the theatre adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel
Paris, Late 19th – early 20th century
MJV D255

Around the World in 80 Days
The Wreck of the Henrietta
Poster for the adaptation of Verne’s novel at the Théâtre du Châtelet
Ch. Wall & Cie Printers, Paris, 1900-1914
MJV D900 (Purchased with the support of the Fonds Régional d’Acquisition pour les Bibliothèques (FRAB), 2017)

Around the World in 80 Days
The Cave of Snakes
Poster for the adaptation of the novel at the Théâtre du Châtelet
Ch. Wall & Cie Printers, Paris, 1900-1914
MJV D899 (Purchased with the support of the Fonds Régional d’Acquisition pour les Bibliothèques, 2017)

This spectacular play by Jules Verne and Adolphe d’Ennery was an adaptation in five acts and 15 tableaux. D’Ennery
introduced new characters and sensational new scenes including the cave of snakes in Borneo. This “fairy tale” owed its success to its uniquely spectacular sets and staging effects, including a passenger ship that sinks, a real elephant and an attack on a train by the Indians.

Its success continued unabated from November 1886 to May 1940, and the play was performed more than 3,000 times at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

Michel Strogoff
Poster for the adaptation of the novel at the Théâtre du Châtelet
Émile Lévy & Cie, Paris, circa 1891
MJV D192

The success of his novel Michel Strogoff, published in 1876, prompted Jules Verne to adapt the adventure as a stage play. A spectacular military drama that he wrote with Adolphe d’Ennery, with whom he had already adapted Around the World in Eighty Days. It had its premiere on 17 November 1880 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, lasting from 7:30 in the evening until 2 o’clock in the morning. The play included 16 tableaux, numerous sets, a gypsy ballet and a tartar ballet, 400 extras, 800 costumes, 138 dancers and even a troop of 30 cuirassiers on horseback.

Performed for a full year without interruption, the play ran at the Theâtre du Châtelet until 1939, with a total of 2,502 performances.

Michel Strogoff
Poster for the theatre adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel
Louis Galice et Cie, Paris, 1901
MJV D903 (purchase with assistance from the Fonds Régional d’Acquisition pour les Bibliothèques, 2017)

Alphonse Liébert
Photograph of Paul Chelles in the role of Mathias Sandorf
Photograph taken from the magazine Les Premières illustrées
E.Monnier & Cie, Paris, 1887
MJV C405

Mathias Sandorf
Les Premières illustrées, no. 12, 1887
Alphonse Piaget book shop, Paris
MJV HH616

Five-Act play with 16 tableaus by William Busnach and Georges Maurens taken from the novel by Jules Verne Mathias Sandorf published in 1885. The play was staged for the first time at the Ambigu-Comique theatre in Paris on November 27, 1887. It was played 85 times until February 1888. The ambition of the theatre director, Émile Rochard, was to stage a big show: « The tableau of the Escape, showing effects with lighting piercing the clouds, prisoners descending, […], the tableau of the Casa Inglese, a small house built on the side of Mount Etna to serve as a shelter for tourists, views of the countryside, arid rocks, dry lava and snowy peaks, the eruption of the volcano, the melting of the snow and the representation of phenomena […] ».

Jean-Jacques Debillemont
Partition for piano for In Search of the Castaways
Adaptation for the theatre of Jules Verne’s novel at Porte Saint-Martin theatre.
Léon Grus publishing house, Paris, 1879
MJV I118

Illustrated programme of In Search of the Castaways
Adaptation for the theatre of Jules Verne’s novel at Porte Saint-Martin theatre.
Porte Saint-Martin theatre, Paris, 1879
MJV H768

Adolphe d’Ennery
Handwritten letter, circa 1878
MJV B199 – Exhibition print

This five-act play, with prologue and 13 tableaus, was written by Jules Verne and Adolphe d’Ennery according to the novel In Search of the Castaways published in 1867-1868. The first took place on December 26, 1878, at Porte Saint-Martin theatre. The play was put on 112 times in total. From the 14 tableaus initially proposed here by Ennery, 13 were retained but with marked differences.

Around the World in 80 Days
Poster for the programme on February 16, 1902 at the Renaissance theatre in Nantes
MJV D218 – Exhibition print

Renaissance theatre
Nantes, early 20^th century
Private collection

The Renaissance theatre, which no longer exists, opened on March 14, 1868, in the neighbourhood of the Palais de Justice. It offered residents of Nantes new shows beyond the lyrical works of the Grand-Théâtre Graslin. Around the World in 80 Days was staged there between December 19, 1875 and January 25, 1876, and Jules Verne was able to attend the show.

Around the World in 80 Days
Glass magic lantern slides
MJV G1

A magic lantern is a device that projects enlarged painted images onto glass. Its use developed from the 1840s to recount stories, and was also the precursor of the invention of cinema. The scenes presented are inspired by the play written by Jules Verne and Adolphe d’Ennery.

V. Spahn
Eleven Days of Siege
Theatre poster, Tournées Doria
Herpin, Alençon, 1905
MJV D194 – Exhibition print

Jules Verne and Charles Wallut
Eleven Days of Siege
Michel Lévy Frères, book shop and publishing house, Paris, 1861
MJV A135

This three-act comedy in prose was written between 1856 and 1860 by Jules Verne and Victorien Sardou. The libretto of this comedy, published in 1861, was written by Jules Verne and Charles Wallut. The first staging of the play was on June 1, 1861, at the Vaudeville theatre in Paris. It was repeated several times in different locations, including Amiens, in 1880 and 1900. Upon Jules Verne’s death in 1905, the Tournées Doria brought back the play and staged it throughout France.
This theatrical work features a plot surrounding legal woes related to a marriage contract. To make sure his scenario was realistic, Jules Verne sought the advice of his father, a lawyer. It was the first play written by the author before he began to write Voyages Extraordinaires.