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Etudes & articles The Compagnie des Quinze by Jane Baldwin
Etudes & articles The Compagnie des Quinze by Jane Baldwin | The Compagnie des Quinze by Jane Baldwin |
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Page 6 sur 6 The rivalry between the two companies was, however, less than amicable. Despite Dullin's good-will toward the Quinze, his company regarded them as interlopers. Both companies were members of the same theatrical family, but, competition led to jealousy. With the return of Obey, Le Viol de Lucrèce reentered the troupe's repertory accompanied by his new curtain-raiser, Vénus et Adonis. The two works attracted sizeable audiences, arousing the envy of the Atelier company, which was undergoing a bad season. On the advice of Saint-Denis, Dullin produced an adaptation of Aristophanes' Peace, the season’s triumph. Lucrèce brought financial benefits to the Atelier, but the Quinze scarcely profited from the success of Peace. Disturbed by the hostility of the Atelier actors, Saint-Denis dissolved the contract at the end of two months. Nevertheless, the Quinze were able to defer the resumption of their nomadic life; the box-office receipts from Obey's play allowed them to remain in Paris for the rest of the season. Saint-Denis rented the Studio des Champs-Elysées and thence transferred Lucrèce, but the Right Bank theatre was not an appropriate venue. Despite the auditorium's small size, it was seldom filled. And a segment of the public who did attend was drawn to the theatre because of the play's title. Patrons arrived hoping to be titillated, and left disappointed, its erotica evidently too poetic and symbolic. March of 1933 found the troupe back at the Vieux-Colombier for the last time. They presented two new works, Henri Ghéon’s Violante and Obey’s Loire. Violante, inspired by a work of Tirso de Molina, was conceived with the intent of exploiting the company's clowning skills. The play received respectable, if not superlative reviews. Notable in the later reviews of critics who followed their work was the growing appreciation of their style. Loire, the fifth of six plays Obey wrote for the Quinze, was the last the company performed in Paris. At the season's end they left for a tour of Spain, where Saint-Denis met the like-minded dramatist Lorca. Lorca’s theatrical aims were similar and his touring company, La Barraca, was reminiscent of the Copiaus. By now, the company of fifteen had shrunk to four⎯three of the original actors and Saint-Denis. The problems that had plagued the troupe from the beginning had not abated. In the midst of the Depression their financial plight was unlikely to improve; no new patron had stepped forward and Madame Gompel's assistance was contingent upon Obey's involvement. The absence of a permanent home would continue to compel constant touring, and, given the lack of interest in Paris of any but a coterie of followers, it was doubtful that the troupe would ever attain a playhouse. It was a crucial period for Saint-Denis, who "understood that the energy was fast disappearing and, if any enthusiasm was to be regenerated, our initial task already at an end, the means to a new beginning would have to be through a school." As the actors drifted away, Michel tried to replace them. However, it had taken years of training to create the original ensemble of the Compagnie des Quinze. Saint-Denis felt that perhaps the company could be recreated in another, more peaceful environment. With the encouragement of Jean Giono, the composer Darius Milhaud, and friends in Aix-en-Provence, Michel brought his small group of actors and students to Beaumanoir on the outskirts of Aix. Saint-Denis chose this location because Aix had a fair-sized English population that he hoped would be supportive. He set up shop in a large country house which was to serve as a drama center. Plans for the new center were similar to those drawn up for the Quinze in Ville d'Avray. Accommodations at Beaumanoir, however, were Spartan, more reminiscent of Pernand-Vergelesses than Ville d'Avray. The facility would be used for rehearsals and training young actors. Classes would also be held for summer-school students in order to raise sorely needed funds. The company would spend eight months a year in Beaumanoir rehearsing for four months and performing outdoors for another four. The rest of the year would be spent touring. Autumn of 1934 found Michel and the reorganized Quinze back on the road. The Beaumanoir experiment survived less than a year. Pressures of communal living, compounded by economic woes, exacerbated tensions. In desperation, Michel left for London in the hopes of raising funds from his British enthusiasts in order to keep the company afloat. By December 1935, Saint-Denis’s pilgrimage having proved futile, the company, without sufficient funds to pay their bills or even for subsistence, disbanded. The question remains: Why was a troupe that inspired such enthusiasm abroad unable to put down its roots at home? The Compagnie des Quinze was allowed to vanish from the French theatrical world, with few to mourn its passing. But did it disappear? From its demise came new growth; its ideals and teachings reemerged and strongly influenced the post-war theatre in France. Many of its members played a significant role in the French theatre's decentralization, most notably Saint-Denis and Jean Dasté. Dasté’s company, the Comédie de Saint-Etienne, was created in the spirit of the Quinze. It is a spirit that continues even today. Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil embodies the philosophy and practices of Michel Saint-Denis’s troupe. But what of Saint-Denis? In France he had been one of several directors working in the Copeau tradition, but was more closely identified with his uncle than the others. Louis Jouvet and Charles Dullin, the best known of Copeau's disciples, broke their formal ties with him early in their careers and remained in Paris, whereas Saint-Denis’s most formative years were spent far from the capital. The Burgundy experience, while invaluable to his artistic development, was a liability in terms of recognition. Frustrated and exhausted by his struggles to establish the Quinze, Michel reluctantly decided to leave France for the more hospitable climate of England. He was then thirty-seven years old; he had ambitions of his own he wished to realize, a professional autonomy to create. “If I grabbed at the opportunities offered me in London, it was above all because there, I knew, I would be totally alone, a million miles from my friends, a million miles from my master Copeau.” If the French did not mourn their loss, the British rejoiced at their gain. Timing worked against Saint-Denis in France, but in his favor in England. The British theatre was at a turning point, the commercial theatre lacklustre, an avant-garde struggling to be born. To its emerging practitioners, the Quinze represented a model of discipline, creativity, and ensemble. They looked to its director Michel Saint-Denis to provide artistic leadership. |
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