A French radio play about Marie-Antoinette

Gerald

Just heard a French radio play, "Le Règne de Marie-Antoinette" by René-Nicolas Ehni. In 1793, the Allies take Paris (apparently because Dumouriez' treason successed) and free Marie-Antoinette from the Conciergerie. It's implied that Louis XVII is already dead and the Allies intend to put Louis XVI' brother on the throne. Marie-Antoinette uses the Chouans to seize the control of Paris and drive them out. She then reigns till 1855 (yes, she'll die at 100) and creates an utopical France: gender equality, slavery abolished, intensive alphabetization... Revolutionary leaders are deported to Louisiana (which somehow became French again without Bonaparte's help) and help freed slaves to build a new society in French colonies.
OK, it's mostly a farce. But the host introducing it didn't forget to use the word "uchronie"!
 

Gerald

Well, French history about the Napoleonic wars commonly calls them "les Alliés", so I've supposed it was the same about the Revolutionary wars, even if it's more probably like "les Coalisés".
 

Yorel

Gerald said:
Well, French history about the Napoleonic wars commonly calls them "les Alliés", so I've supposed it was the same about the Revolutionary wars, even if it's more probably like "les Coalisés".
Click to expand...

In fact, both the expressions "les Alliés" and "les Coalisés" are used in French, both for the Revolutionnary and Napoleonic Wars to describe the nations that fought France in their ensemble. The first expression, "les Alliés" can be translated as "the Allies" and, as a matter of fact, is aslo the same word used by the French regarding the Allies of WWII (hence the bit of confusion). The Second, "les Coalisés" has a similar signification though it refers to the members of the Coalitions against France: since the 1st and 2nd Coalitions were done before Napoleon rose to the throne, they count as part of the Revolutionnary Wars.

Regarding the play you mentionned in itself... Well, I think I will call it ASB because the setting is in my opinion. Plus, why would France accept Marie Antoinette as ruler of France and, more precisely, why would the Chouans support her? Royalist were particularly conservative in regards to Salic Law... As for Marie Antoinette, she is a foreigner in the first place and was called "L'Autrichienne" (The Austrian) for most of her life in France... Remind me how it ended the last time a foreign ruler tried to claim the French crown? A Hundread Years War.
 

Gerald

Digging out my own thread.

As Jacques Taroni, who directed "Le Règne de Marie-Antoinette", recently passed away, the same radio station broadcasted another of his co-works with René-Nicolas Ehni : "Marie-Antoinette II", the sequel !
It definitely turns into fantasy. Madame de Staël becomes Minister of Railways. Louis XVII, still alive, rules the île de Sein and, since the abolition of slavery, wrecks English slave traders. The English declare war. Marie-Antoinette destroys their fleet at Trafalgar, thanks to the secret of Greek Fire given by Sultan Mahmud, who's madly in love with her (at the end of the story, they're about to get married). Ah, and Algeria is pacifically francized when a lot of French girls are sent to marry Algerian qaids. Quite witty and humorous. The host didn't talk about uchronia anymore.

Permission to bury thread again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top