Scene · 1899-1900
Théâtre de la Bodinière – the Rites of Isis
Address · 18, rue Saint-Lazare, 75009 Paris
Metro · Saint-Georges (12) / Trinité – d'Estienne d'Orves (12)
Today · Other use. The hall closed in 1902; the address is now a restaurant.
The story
La Bodinière, opened in 1890 by Charles Bodinier, was a small multipurpose hall on rue Saint-Lazare: lectures, exhibitions, shadow theater, recitals and avant-garde shows followed one another there. It belonged to the network of intermediate venues, somewhere between cabaret and theater, typical of Belle Époque Paris, where a cultivated public came in search of novelty. It closed in 1902. Its eclectic program made it a convenient place to present shows that had no place in the major theaters.
Churton explains that the Mathers, once settled in Paris, launched a semi-public revival of the cult of Isis, with Moina playing the high priestess and Samuel the high priest. Begun in their house in Passy-Auteuil, these ceremonies were brought to the stage of the Bodinière in March 1899. Questioned by an English journalist, Mathers presented the venture as a remedy for the decadence of the age rather than as one more provocation. The audience discovered costumes, invocations and dances inspired by ancient Egypt, in a production designed by the Mathers themselves.
The episode marks the meeting of the British Golden Dawn and Parisian society life, at a time when the order was going through a serious crisis in England. Aleister Crowley, who frequented the Mathers from 1900, is an indirect witness. Nothing at 18, rue Saint-Lazare suggests a theater anymore: a restaurant now occupies the premises. One has to look at the facade and remember that a reconstructed Egyptian cult was performed here before Parisian spectators on the eve of 1900.
To be checked · Churton places the Bodinière on the hill of Montmartre; it was in fact on rue Saint-Lazare, in the 9th arrondissement. Coordinates estimated from the street number.