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Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

There is consensus in academic circles that the directors Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine have similar approaches to theatre practice and occupy the same position in the landscape of theatre production in France. Yet there have not been any in-depth studies that unpack the similarities and differences between the two practitioners. Considering their stature on the national French and international stages, such a gap of scholarship needed to be filled. By examining the specificities of their practices via the analysis of their two most emblematic productions, the Mahabharata and Les Atrides, this thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of their practices at a time when they are moving away from theatre. More specifically, this thesis looks at how the two directors transferred ancient archetypal and mythological narratives to the contemporary French stage. It considers how they used successful, parallel methodologies to adapt and render present an Ancient Sanskrit epic on the one hand (Brook), and Ancient Greek drama on the other (Mnouchkine). I uncover in their work the matrix for adaptation, located in the discourse of storytelling and in the post-Brechtian concept of estrangement, that I label ‘décalage’. Moreover, the thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of the supremacy of directors on the French stage in the nineteen eighties and advocates for the cultural necessity of theatre as an art form, at a time of crisis in France.

Yasmina Reza is a contemporary French playwright who is not indifferent to the richness of humor. Her award-winning plays are portfolios of humorous situations that have attracted the attention of crowds composed of the general public and of academics. Reza turns discussions of art, parenting, existentialism, solitude and tragedy into comedies that distill a feminine humor. The public loves it, laughs and applauds. Inspired by Hélène Cixous’s call to laugh as ‘medusas’ (« A feminine text cannot fail to. . . break up the truth with laughter », and « laughs at the very idea of pronouncing the word silence »), I elaborate on the subtle presence of a feminine voice in Reza’s humor. I also consider the fact that Reza has inherited a Jewish humor. The combination of this ancient humor with a feminine voice contributes to Reza’s original imprint upon French theater. Applying selected theories of humor (mainly Bergson and Freud), to the textual analysis of five of her plays, I provide examples of how Reza’s humor transcends the old dichotomies of masculine/feminine and superior/inferior to inscribe a laughter that is particularly feminine. This project is organized in three chapters. The first chapter provides an introduction to the discussion of feminine humor, setting forth Cixous’s, among others, theoretical framework. Selected passages from the play « Art » provide examples of specific strategies of Reza’s feminine humor. The second chapter analyzes passages from the plays Le dieu du carnage and Trois versions de la vie. In the third chapter, the discussion is enlarged to include a short study of Jewish humor and its traces in the plays La traversée de l’hiver and Conversations après un enterrement. The conclusion takes a brief look at how the play L’homme du hazard also contributes to Reza’s feminine manifestation of humor. Reza’s theater is a fun, thought provoking, reenergizing experience that can shed new light on our daily struggles in life and in relationships. Reza’s feminine humor introduces a new way of relating to reality. This project reflects my desire to share this with the readers. Have fun!

Orientadores: Edgar Salvadori de Decca, Raphaelle Legrand / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T02:09:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Inacio_DeniseScandarolli_D.pdf: 2793606 bytes, checksum: 011827e909f7e020655b8406892c6003 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Nos anos de 1840, chegaram ao Rio de Janeiro duas companhias francesas de teatro, se instalaram em teatros da corte e começaram a apresentar um repertório bastante específico, vaudevilles e opéra-comiques. É da Compagnie Dramatique Française e da Compagnie Lyrique Française que esta tese vai se ocupar. Apesar de haver um verdadeiro silêncio sobre a trajetória desses dois grupos de artistas, o impacto que sua atuação causou nas práticas teatrais da corte brasileira é fundamental no processo de desenvolvimento de vários eixos ligados a essa arte, como a crítica artística, os regimentos das salas de espetáculos, o discurso que buscava a estruturação de um teatro nacional, a censura, o confronto com os significados do "civilizado" e dos valores franceses, etc. Dessa forma, compreender os mecanismos de atuação desses artistas franceses no Rio de Janeiro e as relações que eles estabeleceram entre as diversas instâncias ligadas à arte, possibilita entender os processos de formação cultural da corte e os diálogos estabelecidos com a arte francesa, os quais envolvem muito mais o estranhamento que o reconhecimento / Abstract: In the 1840s, the French theater companies Compagnie Française Dramatique, and Compagnie Française Lyrique arrived in Rio de Janeiro. They settled in the Brazilian court with a specific repertoire composed mostly by vaudeville and opéra-comiques, and even though little was known about the story of these two group, their actions impacted theatrical practices of the court. This thesis addresses the story of these French companies. They were fundamental in the development of multiple axes, and remarkably connected with regiments of spectacle rooms, artistic criticism, and censorship, to structure a national theater and confronted with the meanings of "civilized" and French values. One can therefore understand the cultural dialogues established with French art by the mechanisms of action of these artists in Rio de Janeiro, and the relationships established among the different entities related to the Art / Doutorado / Politica, Memoria e Cidade / Doutora em História

Les dramaturgies contemporaines répondent à l’exigence d’une écriture du temps au théâtre en renouvelant notamment leur forme, leur langue et leur adresse. Le drame n’est plus « action » au présent. Il devient l’expression d’un retour, celui du passé. Le jeu avec le passé est le va-et-vient sans fin et toujours renouvelé du passé vers le drame et du drame vers le passé. Cette étude se concentre sur neuf pièces écrites entre 1980 et 2000 par trois dramaturges français, Patrick Kermann, Jean-Luc Lagarce et Philippe Minyana. Dans ces écritures, le passé revendique sa place [et la prend] dans l’actualité de la représentation. En investissant toute la structure du drame, il bouleverse l’organisation du discours, la représentation de l’espace et la possibilité de l’action. Cette revendication s’effectue également à la faveur du retour des morts et sur la mort. Tandis que la catastrophe a déjà eu lieu, le désastre continue d’abîmer et déconstruire la fable. Joués par le passé, le drame et ses protagonistes témoignent d’un héritage « sans testament ». Privé d’identité, le personnage accepte ou subit le jeu sans pour autant parvenir toujours à en proposer une interprétation. / Contemporary theatre answers the requirement of a theater writing of the time by renewing in particular its form, its language and its addressee. Drama is no longer an “action” taking place in the present. It becomes the expression of a return, that of the past. Playing with the past corresponds to endless comings and goings from the past to drama and from drama to the past. This study focuses on nine plays written between 1980 and 2000 by three French dramatists, Patrick Kermann, Jean-Luc Lagarce and Philippe Minyana. In these writings, the past claims its place [and takes it] in the performance actuality. By investing the whole drama structure, it disrupts the organization of speech, the representation of space and the possibility of action. This claiming also proceeds from the return of the dead and to death. Whereas catastrophe already took place, disaster keeps on damaging and deconstructing the fable. Played by the past, drama and its protagonists testify an inheritance left “by no testament”. Deprived of identity, the character accepts or suffers the way he is played, without necessarily and systematically managing to offer an interpretation.

Dans un théâtre subventionné en crise, l’acteur français se pense aujourd’hui comme un hyper-citoyen, lui qui fut si longtemps privé de citoyenneté. Tout l’enjeu contemporain de la parole de l’acteur s’incarne dans la quête, nostalgique et militante à la fois, de l’éthos et de la transcendance perdus dans le statut d’infâme. En rejaillissant sur l’existence de l’acteur, l’infamie a cristallisé des affects tenaces, passés dans l’inconscient collectif, modelant l’hexis des comédiens, influençant les pratiques scéniques. Elle a contribué à consolider certaines particularités françaises en matière de pédagogie du jeu, comme la défiance vis-à-vis de la méthode stanislavskienne et du monologue. A cet égard, la comparaison avec l’école de jeu anglaise est instructive. C’est au moment de la laïcisation de l’État, il y a cent ans, qu’un nouveau théâtre fait des choix éthiques et esthétiques encore largement opératoires aujourd’hui, et achève la conversion de l’acteur : d’ancien damné, il deviendra sauveur, missionné par l’État auprès d’une nation-public. Contrairement aux apparences, la mise en infamie de l’acteur a toujours cours. Avec la sécularisation de la société française, elle a quitté le champ métaphysique, pour investir le champ méta-économique. Elle prend sa source dans le rapport statutaire de l’acteur à l’État et impose son coût historique. Un véritable "Complexe d’infamie" de l’acteur est en effet à l’œuvre sur les scènes françaises, assorti d’un tabou de l’intériorité et d’un interdit d’adresse directe au public, agissant comme un grand Sur-moi actoral. Infâme parmi les infâmes, l’acteur alter-ethnique est un cas redoublé du "Complexe d’infamie". L’acteur français noir, en particulier, est un révélateur des contradictions affectant "visiblement" la condition esthétique du comédien et la citoyenneté républicaine. Dans le contexte du quadruplement du nombre des acteurs en France depuis 1980, ce "Complexe d’infamie" éclaire la nature de l’indécision de la pédagogie dramatique. Il gagnerait à être sublimé ou subverti avant toute tentative de refondation pédagogique. / At a time when subsidised theater is in crisis, the French actor, after being considered a second-rate citizen for such a long time, thinks of himself today as a super-citizen. The contemporary challenge of speech ("parole") of the actor is embodied in the quest, both nostalgic and militant, for ethos and transcendence, lost in the state of infamy. Rebounding on the existence of the actor, infamy has crystallised stubborn affects, slipped into the collective unconsciousness, shaping the hexis of actors and influencing stage practices. It has helped to consolidate French peculiarities in acting pedagogy, such as mistrust of the Stanislavski method and the monologue. In this respect, comparison with the English school of acting is informative. A hundred years ago, at the time of the secularisation of the State, a new theater made ethical and aesthetic choices, which are still largely operative today, and completed the conversion of the actor: formerly a damned soul, he has become a savior, sent by the State before a national audience. Contrary to appearances, the situation of infamy still exists. It is just that, with the secularisation of French society, the meta-economic field replaced the metaphysical one. Its roots can be found in the statutory relationship between the actor and the State and imposes its historical cost. A "Complex of infamy" for the actor is indeed present on the French stage, together with a taboo on interiority and a prohibition against directly addressing the public, representing a big actorly Super-ego. Infamous among the infamous, the alter-ethnic actor suffers from a doubled "Complex of infamy". The black French actor, in particular, is a mirror of the contradictions "visibly" affecting the aesthetic condition of the actor and republican citizenship. Given the context where the number of actors in France has quadrupled since 1980, this "Complex of infamy" points out the indecisive nature of teaching drama. It needs to be sublimated or subverted before ever attempting any educational reform.

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the prominence of audience ridicule in the French theatre from the medieval sottie to Ionescan Absurdism of the mid-twentieth century. Throughout the history of French drama, playwrights have exploited this tactic with either the purpose of invoking an emotional or intellectual response or inciting a social or political call to action. This exploration takes particular interest in shaming theatrical audiences during periods of political unrest, analyzing the ways in which playwrights employed language, studies of characters, and plot-related content to highlight the prevalent and pervasive ills of society and of humanity. The majority of the literature from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries criticizes the aristocracy, the clergy, and the crown. As we approach revolutionary France, the theatre all but abandons intrigue in favor of the tears that flowed that from the ocean of English Sentimentalism. Melodrama and the well-made play adorned the early-nineteenth century, while the later part of the century brought French theatre Jarry’s pataphysics and his affinity for audience shaming that set the stage for the impending onslaught of twentieth-century ridicule. The avant-garde movement flourished at the beginning of the century with the Dadas and the Surrealists responding to humanity’s response to the War to End All Wars. When Ionesco arrived at the forefront of the French theatre mid-century, he employed the most effective audience ridicule tactics invented by his predecessors and created his Absurdist theatre. Ionesco writes: “take a circle, caress it, and it will turn vicious” (38). From the fifteenth century to the twentieth century, the cycle of audience ridicule was indeed vicious in a theatre that sought to effect positive change in a rapidly changing society.

Dans les années 1840, deux troupes françaises sont arrivées à Rio de Janeiro, elles se sont installées dans les théâtres de la Cour où elles ont présenté des genres théâtrales spécifique, des vaudevilles et des opéra-comiques. C’est précisément de la Compagnie Dramatique Française et de la Compagnie Lyrique Française que cette thèse s’attachera. Bien qu’il y a un vrai silence à propos de la histoire de ces deux troupes, l’impacte que leurs actions ont suscité dans les pratiques théâtrales de la Cour du Brésil est fondamental dans le développement de plusieurs axes liés à cet art, par exemple la critique d’art, les régiments de fonctionnement des salles de spectacle, le discours qui cherchait l’organisation d’un théâtre national, la censure, le confrontation avec les significations de « civilisé » e des valeurs français. Ainsi, la compréhension des mécanismes d’action de ces artistes français à Rio de Janeiro et les relations qu’ils ont établie entre les différentes entités liées à l’art, permet comprendre les processus de formation cultural de la Cour et des dialogues établies avec l’art français, qui implique bien l’éloignement que la reconnaissance. / In the 1840s, the French theater companies Compagnie Française Dramatique, and Compagnie Française Lyrique arrived in Rio de Janeiro. They settled in the Brazilian court with a specific repertoire composed mostly by vaudeville and opéra-comiques, and even though little was known about the story of these two group, their actions impacted theatrical practices of the court. This thesis addresses the story of these French companies. They were fundamental in the development of multiple axes, and remarkably connected with regiments of spectacle rooms, artistic criticism, censorship, to structure a national theater and confronted with the meanings of "civilized" and French values. One can therefore understand the cultural dialogues established with French art by the mechanisms of action of these artists in Rio de Janeiro, and the relationships established among the different entities related to the Art.