October 2013 saw the start of a three-years project on French theatre of the Napoleonic era funded by the AHRC. Theatre was an important tool for Napoleon Bonaparte but it has been almost entirely ignored by recent criticism, which has focused instead on Revolutionary theatre. Scholars of the Revolutionary period have successfully exploited a range of approaches to show how new aesthetic theatrical forms can surface even at a time of censorship and overt politicisation but these have not, as yet, been applied to the post-Revolutionary period, and this will be our starting point for re-examining theatrical texts and performance during the early 19^th century. This blog will chart the progress over the next three years.