(Theater play) The circle of disappeared philosophers

Abstract

The play takes place in October 1799, on the eve of Bonaparte's coup d'état (7 November 1799 – 18 Brumaire). Madame de Staël is in her living room in Coppet, where she is working on her book “Considerations on the Revolution”. On this occasion, she has invited Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and Condorcet to a conversation about the past ten years. “By your ideas and your writings,” she says, “you are responsible for the Revolution of 1789; ten years later, what is your assessment?” The play is part of civic theatre, inviting the spectator to question the responsibility of intellectuals in the life of the city. It concerns the events of 1789, but also alludes to current events, today. Should an intellectual stay in his office? Should he go out, speak out and take a stand? How should he position himself in relation to power, whoever holds it? Madame de Staël prompts the four philosophers to answer these questions, so that their answers echo the current debate on the responsibility of intellectuals and, in particular, of jurists in the crisis of democracy.