A symbolic event endowed with strong political significance, the storming of the Bastille, constituted a frequent dramatic subject whose success remained mediocre and inconstant. An analysis of the reception of these theatrical productions of the period illuminates not only the history of the theater, but also and above all the history of the Revolution and the evolution of mentalities. Despite numerous reinterpretations and formal revisions ideological or not whose goal was to render the event persistently current and with that, strengthen public opinion, the success of these plays decreased significantly after the second half of 1791. This decline, caused by a multitude of reasons, highlights in particular the difficulties and contradictions of the literature of circumstance whose reception is subject to the vagaries of socio-political history.