LE MYSTÈRE DES ENFANTS DANS LA FOURNAISE: ICONOGRAPHIE ET HISTOIRE DU THÉÂTRE BYZANTIN
LE MYSTÈRE DES ENFANTS DANS LA FOURNAISE: ICONOGRAPHIE ET HISTOIRE DU THÉÂTRE BYZANTIN

Summary/Abstract: The Mystery of the Three Hebrews in the Burning Furnace: Iconography and History of Byzantine Theatre. The very existence of a Byzantine religious theatre has always been a question mark for historians and a challenge for scholars interested in the tortuous relationship between the Christian Church and the scenic representations. This article proposes a synthetic view upon a liturgical play, called The Three Hebrews in the Burning Furnace, trying to understand its birth and its evolution in the Byzantine and the Post-Byzantine world. Being often used as an example, as well as a counter-example, in the struggle for proving the existence or the non-existence of a religious theatre in Byzantium, this extremely theatrical ceremony leads us to rethink the essence of theatre compared to rites and rituals and raises a rather complicated question: where are the borders of theatre to be drawn when theatricality overflows religious ceremonies? Byzantine and Russian traditions may offer an answer.

• Details
• Contents