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Towards a Genetic Understanding of Non-contemporary Theatre: Traces, Objects, Methods1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

JEAN-MARIE THOMASSEAU
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Abstract

Making a preliminary dictinction between contemporary theatre and non-contemporary theatre, this article draws the limits of the twofold field of investigation for a theatrical genetics in process. In so doing, it underlines more particularly the inquiries and stakes of the genetic analysis of non-contemporary theatre; that is, the theatre antedating the age of the stage director. Relying on a body of significant documents, it puts forward some possible ways of gathering, preserving and interpreting heterogeneous, uncertain and unstable tracks discarded in the outburst of creations which were then little concerned about their preservation. Lastly, a third part brings out the conditions for possible methods of analysis which, by pairing the genetic study of the text and the stage, try to evade the traps of parcelling, of what is aleatory and mobile, in order to retrieve the theatre's creative processes.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 33 , Special Issue 3: Genetics of Performance , October 2008 , pp. 234 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2008

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References

NOTES

2 J. Derrida, ‘Le Sacrifice’, quoted in D. Mesguich, L'Éternel éphémère (Verdier, 2006), 145. A first translation of this Derrida text was published in 1991 in the periodical La Métaphore (published by the Théâtre national de Lille).

3 One definition of this concept has been attempted in the latest issue of the periodical Genesis, which is devoted to theatre manuscripts. More particularly, see Almuth Grésillon and Jean-Marie Thomasseau's article ‘Scènes de genèses théâtrales,’ Genesis, 26 (Jean-Michel Piace 2006) pp. 19–33. I will refer more precisely to the diagram included in this article. On the stage–text relationship, one might profitably consult Béatrice Picon-Vallin's article ‘La Mise en scène et le texte’, in L'Art et l'hybride, (ed. Marie-Claire Ropars-Wuillemier, Saint-Denis: UP de Vincennes, 2001), pp. 103–16.

4 On this subject see Autant-Mathieu, Marie-Christine, ‘Avant-propos’ and ‘Auteur, écritures dramatiques’ (1995), in Écrire pour le théâtre, les enjeux de l'écriture dramatique (ed. Autant-Mathieu, Marie-Christine, Paris: CNRS Editions, 2005), pp. 9–28.Google Scholar Also see Sophie Proust's article on the genetics of contemporary theatre in the same volume.

5 The question requires further research, but in my opinion the theatre of the Middle Ages, like contemporary theatre, requires a unique critical treatment.

6 On this subject one might refer to two recent articles by Jacqueline Razgonnikoff: ‘Petite Histoire de la mise en scène avant André Antoine’ (I and II), published in the Comédie-Française's Journal des trois théâtres under the titles ‘La Mise au théâtre,’ 18 (2006), pp. 30–3, and ‘De Voltaire à Taylor,’ 20 (2006), pp. 32–5.

7 For example, in France, one might consider the Archives nationales, the B.N.F.'s Bibliothèque des arts du spectacle, the S.A.C.D., the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, the IMEC, the Société d'histoire du théâtre, the SIBMAS, the Maison Jean-Vilar à Avignon, the Minutier central des notaires and so on.

8 Thomasseau, Jean-Marie, ‘Les Manuscrits de théâtre. Essai de typologie’, Littérature; ‘Théâtre: Le Retour du Texte?, 138 (2005), pp. 97–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The first version of this essay on typology was proposed at the colloquium on theatre manuscripts organized by the Ecole normale supérieure in February 1996 (ed. J. Neefs and B. Didier).

9 See the Figure 9infra.

10 I am particularly indebted here to Joël Huthwhol, head conservator of the Bibliothèque de la Comédie-Française, for his perfect knowledge of the collection, for allowing me to bring these essentially unpublished documents to light, and for authorizing and facilitating their publication. Jean-Marie Thomasseau

11 For a more developed analysis of manuscripts prior to performance, see the following articles: ‘Les Manuscrits de la mise en scène’, L'Annuaire Théâtral; Revue Québécoise d'Études Théâtrales, 29 (2001), pp. 101–22; and ‘Les Manuscrits préparatoires à la mise en Scène du Ruy Blas de Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman (Comédie-Française 2001)’, in Jean-Marie Thomasseau, ed., Le Théâtre au plus près (Paris: UP de Vincennes, 2005), 197–220.

12 I am particularly indebted here to Odile Krakovitch, who has always facilitated my access to documents from censors and who has helped me decode them. I refer to the totality of her work for details concerning censorship in the nineteenth century.

13 In this method of proceeding, at the crossroads of poetics and aesthetics, one could refer to the remarkable work of Georges Forestier: Essai de génétique théâtrale, Corneille à l'oeuvre (Paris: Klincksieck, 1996).

14 See, for example, the copious materials on censorship preserved at the Archives nationales under the code F.21.