"All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players." (Shakespeare, "As You Like It.")
The Stage
Shakespeare’s profound insight that the world can be viewed as a stage on which men and women play their parts applies to every historical monument. In this Online program, the historical site of Notre Dame, the Cathedral of Paris, is being presented as a stage.
The Play
The stage-hands building the cathedral prepare the scene. The actors are appearing in and around the church. Near the main altar, in the choir, in the nave, on the towers of Notre Dame, at the Place du Parvis and at the Episcopal Palace they perform their dramatic roles. The drama covers a period of more than eight hundred years. It chronicles culminating points and lowest ebbs in the history of France and reveals the unique identity of the French.
