This project investigates the previously unrecognised significance of the ways in which the Embodied Theatre practices of Suzanne Bing (1885-1967) and Michael Chekhov (1891-1955) utilised forms of what I term Embodied Play as a constituent part of their actor training processes. A methodology is developed in the introduction which draws on Foucault's notion of genealogy and Feminist approaches to historiography in order to trace and review accounts of these often marginalised play practices in order to re-configure the contributions of Bing and Chekhov in historical terms. It also challenges notions of authenticity and singular 'ownership' of technique by considering the importance of collaborative cross-fertilisation with other practitioners. This research includes a broader exploration of the literature, histories and discourses about the variety of practices that are often problematically classified as Physical Theatre in relation to the identification of the key components of Bing and Chekhov's pedagogy. The first chapter presents this mapping in tandem with the argument that McDermott's term of Embodied Theatre is more appropriate for Bing and Chekhov's practice. The second chapter further refines the frame of analysis to Embodied Play. Chapters three and four consider how Chekhov and Bing respectively used forms of Embodied Play. Chapter five considers how Bing and Chekhov extended their methods of Embodied Play in training which led to radical approaches to working collaboratively with text and writers. It concludes that this movement from the use of play solely for the acquisition of discrete skill or character creation to extended forms of Embodied Play enabled them to train actors to work as empowered creators of small-scale performance in their Schools/Studios, and ultimately to engage in devising processes for professional productions. Consequently, this helps to fill the gap in scholarship on the early experiments in devised Embodied Theatre. In conclusion the focus on Bing addresses the either inadequate, or absent, analyses of her practice in many of the existing historical studies which are dominated by the patrilineal narratives of Jacques Copeau and Michel Saint-Denis. The consideration of Chekhov's practice also challenges the current discourse on play centring on Le Jeu and presents the argument for an expanded term able to consider different artists not just those from the French male lineage. Concurrently, this focus on Chekhov's use of Embodied Play has added to the scholarship on his pedagogic and theatre-making practices.

Un grand nombre de dramaturges français aussi différents qu’André Gide, Antonin Artaud,Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henry de Montherlant et Jean Vauthier se sont emparés de la pensée de Nietzsche pour la représenter sur scène. Si des études ont été menées sur les liens entre la pensée de Nietzsche et les écrivains français, aucune n’a abordé de manière synthétique la présence de la pensée de Nietzsche dans le théâtre français du XXème siècle et notamment dans l’élaboration même du texte théâtral. Pourtant, cette pensée tragique qui part du Dionysos de La Naissance de la tragédie jusqu’à Ecce homo, ne cesse d’entretenir des liens consubstantiels avec le genre même du théâtre. La conception esthétique du dionysiaque présente des affinités avec l’art dramatique et semble prédisposée à se retrouver transposée et incarnée sur une scène de théâtre. La réflexion de Nietzsche sur la physiologie de l’art a pu entraîner un renouvellement de l’écriture des pratiques et écritures dramaturgiques traditionnelles au profit d’un théâtre vivant, incarné, usant de toutes les ressources dela scène. Paradoxalement, le théâtre métaphysique d’inspiration nietzschéenne va de pair avec une affirmation du corps et des passions. Á l’opposé d’un théâtre d’idées ou à thèse, certaines des oeuvres étudiées montrent que le théâtre métaphysique nietzschéen est avant tout un théâtre du corps, à la recherche d’une fusion entre l’art et la vie, le spectacle et le réel, au rebours de la conception mimétique aristotélicienne. / Many different french playwrights such as André Gide, Antonin Artaud, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henry de Montherlant and Jean Vauthier took up Nietzsche's thoughts to impicture it onstage. If studies were made on the links between Nietzsche's thought process and french writer, noneadress the question of Nietzsche's thought in the XXth century french theatre synthetically. None theless, this tragic thought starting in «La Naissance de la tragedie» 's Dionysos and ending with «Eccehomo» keeps maintaining consubstantial links with the theatre genre. Dionisyan esthetical conceptionshows affinities with dramatic art and seems predisposed to be transposed and embodied on stage.Nietzsche's thought on art's physiology has caused a renewal of traditionnal writing for theatre for thebenefit of a living theatre, incarnated, using all the stage's ressources. Paradoxically, this nietzschean metaphysical theatre goes with assertion of body and passions. In contrast with « theatre of ideas »,some of the studied works show that Nietzsche's metaphysical theatre is above all an embodied theatre, seeking a fusion between art and life, show and reality, against Aristote’s Poetics.