Suzanne de Genas

Entry by Aurore Evain, 2003/2005

Suzanne de Génas interpreted at Valence in 1526 the role of Saint Columba in the mystery play of the Three Martyrs which depicts the priest Félix and the clerics Fortunat and Achille, disciples of Saint Irene, at the origins of the christianization of the town. The mystery play was performed every twenty-five years in order to protect the inhabitants from the plague. On the occasion of the 1526 performance, Louise de Savoie exempted the organisers from the tolls for the transportation of wood destined for the construction of the stage and seating. This is one of the rare traces of female participation in the performance of a mystery play which have survived to this day. Another woman, Mme de Dorne, was also part of the proceedings. Jacques Chocheyras, in his work Religious Theater in the Dauphiné from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century argues that Saint Columba designates in reality the Holy Ghost.

(translated by Cathy McClive)

Selected bibliography

- Jacques Chocheyras. Le Théâtre religieux en Dauphiné du Moyen Âge au XVIIIe siècle (domaine français et provençal). Genève, Droz, 1975.
- Lynette R. Muir. «Women on the Medieval Stage: the Evidence from France». Medieval English Theater, dec. 1985, vol. 7, no 2, p.107-119.

Reception

- «L'année 1526 fut faict le jeu des Trois Martirs dans Vallence; lequel fut admirablement bien faict, dont le discours est tout en long aux f. 69, 70, 71, etc. du livre des Mémoires du sieur Jean Joubert, chevallier du Sainct Sepulcre, duquel jeu estoint tous les principaux de l'Eglise et des bourgeois, en nombre de vingt et deux personnes, comprins la femme de monsieur de Dorne, qui représentoit Nostre-Dame, et Suzanne de Génas qui representoit saincte Colombe» (François Joubert, Mémoires manuscrits, cité in Jacques Chocheyras, Le Théâtre religieux en Dauphiné..., voir supra, choix bibliog., p.28).