"Sketched at the theater": Anne Delbee's staging of Corneille's final play'Surena'

This article intends to study Anne Delbee's staging of Surena and review su ch various elements as the choice of stage sets and props, the use of costu mes and body motion, the lighting and sound effects, as well as probe the s ignificance of the quotations borrowed from a wide range of works and inter spersed by means of a voice off either on the fringes of the text or in the pauses. Most prominent among the signs that are analysed are those which d o more than much heighten or simply double the verbal text. Privileged is a n attempt to coherently read, organise and interpret precisely those signs in Anne Delbee's staging which are ascribable to heterogeneous codes and wh ich, on the place of the performance, intervene as a superimposed value. Fi nally, this paper purports to investigate and assess the importance of the added meaning which is derived from the references (political, imagery, etc .) thus conjured.