The theatre on the boulevard du Temple in Paris where a coven of vampires perform onstage in IV. This theatre performance was not part of the original version of IV, but was added when Rice was making changes for publication. Although she did not know it at the time, she was setting up a precursor for Lestat as a rock star on stage, thus linking him to Dionysus, patron god of the theatre.

Once known as Renaud's House of Thesbians, which is where Lestat got his start as an actor, the building changes hands when Lestat buys it in 1789. He gives it to a coven of vampires who had followed satanic rituals, but whose illusions about the Dark Ways had been shattered by Lestat's appearance in Paris. They beg Lestat for protection and he advises them to become actors. He gives control of the theatre to Eleni, hands Nicolas over to their care, suggests Armand join with these vampires, and then leaves Paris.

Named by Nicolas, the Théatre des Vampires becomes highly successful. The vampires perform as giant marionettes and the orchestra imitates mechanical musicians. Paris's lower classes accept this theatre as a metaphor for the hated aristocrats when Nicolas writes plays that reflect the political unrest of the city. His themes involve death in the midst of life, and his intent is both to make a mockery of all things sacred and to beguile mortals. One play is about a vampire who starves becasue he can get no blood from a puppet; another is about a girl forced to dance until she dies. Eleni predicts to Lestat that they could feast on victims onstage and get away with it - a prediction that later comes true. Vampires come from other parts of Europe just to be included in the productions. Attendance at the Theatre of the Vampires is by invitation only, and the mortal ushers double during the day as guards.

Theatrical performances involve making fantasy appear real, and the vampires invert this concept to make reality an illusion. Eventually, they do kill onstage, but the mortal audience believes it is merely a performance.

Armand remains with the changing covens who perform in the theatre, helping to perfect the theatre's images but remaining scornfully on the edges. He is simply biding his time, waiting for a vampire to come through Paris with whom he will connect; he believes the theatre is his best means of finding such a kindred soul. He must wait for over seventy-five years, as it turns out.

Louis and Claudia are invited to a performance of the vampires, which begins with the beating of a tambourine and the sound of a flute. The music is medieval and melancholic. The stage shows the image of a woods, and an old woman vainly pursues a figure representing Death. Death takes an interest in a young woman instead, and seven characters who appear to be vampires gather around her. They strip her naked, thus exposing both her body and her fear, for she is a real victim. Armand seduces her, then passes her around until she dies. This scene was different in the original version of IV. The girl was brought to the mansion on the Faubourg St.Germain and passes around to vampires standing in an oval and reciting Baudelaire's poetry.

After the performance, Louis and Claudia are invited below the theatre to where the vampires reside, in a large ballroom. The room us decorated with long mirrors and gloomy, decadent murals of torment and death, reflecting a spirit of cynicism. Louis is not very impressed with the troupe of "actors," who all dress in black and seem rather superficial.

The antics of the vmpires attract the attention of the Talamasca, who collect a file on the theatre through the years and who note Armand's uninterrupted association with it as evidence of his youthful immortality. David Talbot eventually shows the file to Jesse in QD.

Louis burns the theatre down after the coven destroys Claudia.

The Vampire Companion ~ Katherine Ramsland

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Audio sampled from the original motion picture soundtrack, Interview with the Vampire, music composed by Elliot Goldenthal.
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