MACMILLAN MODERN DRA:M.ATIBTB

Transcription

1 MACMILLAN MODERN DRA:M.ATIBTB

2 Macmillan Modern Dramatists Series Editors: Bruce King and Adele King Published titles Eugene Benson, J. M. Synge Renate Benson, German Expressionist Theatre Normand Berlin, Eugene O'Neill Denis Calandra, New German Dramatists Neil Carson, Arthur Miller Ruby Cohn, New American Dramatists, Bernard F. Dukore, Harold Pinter Arthur Ganz, George Bernard Shaw Frances Gray,John Arden Julian Hilton, George Buchner Charles R. Lyons, Samuel Beckett Susan Bassnett-McGuire, Luigi Pirandello Leonard C. Pronko, Eugene Labiche and Georges Feydeau Jeannette L. Savona, Jean Genet Theodore Shank, American Alternative Theatre James Simmons, Sean O'Casey David Thomas, Henrik Ibsen Thomas R. Whitaker, Tom Stoppard Nick Worrall, Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev Katharine Worth, Oscar Wilde Further titles in preparation

3 MACMILLAN MODERN DRAMATISTS JEAN GENET Jeannette L. Savona Associate Professor of French, Trinity College, Toronto, Canada M MACMILLAN PRESS LONDON

4 Jeannette L. Savona 1983 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. First published 1983 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters Ltd Frome, Somerset ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI /

5 Contents List of Plates VI Acknowledgements viii Preliminary Note IX Editors' Preface X 1 Genet's Theatre: Biography and Other Back- ~~~ 1 2 Death watch: The Ideal of Murder and the Prison System 20 3 The Maids: Slavery and Absolute Desire 40 4 The Balcony: Fascism and the Creative Process 70 5 The Blacks: Play-Acting as the Black Man's Burden 97 6 The Screens: Mother and Son or the Third World's Revenge The Spectator's Response to Genet 149 References 167 Select Bibliography 173 Index 176 v

6 List of Plates 1. Claude Barichasse as Maurice and Jean Soumarguas as Lefranc in the final sequence of Deathwatch, Theatre Marie Stuart, Paris, 1980, directed by Pierre-Antoine Villemaine. Photograph: Theatre du Regard Neuf. Courtesy of P. A. Villemaine. 2. Tony Taffin and Robert Hassein in Deathwatch at the Theatre des Mathurins, Paris, 1949, directed by J. Marchat. Photograph: Lipnitzki-Viollet. 3. Yvette Etievant and Monique Melinard in The Maids at the Theatre de l' Athenee, Paris, Photograph: Lipnitzki-Viollet. 4. The Maids at the Theatre des Ambassadeurs, Paris, 1971, directed by Victor Garcia. Photograph: Agence de Presse Bernand. 5. Laurence Fevrier as Claire in The Maids, Theatre de la Maison de la Culture, Amiens, 1977, directed by Dominique Quehec. Photograph: Georges Mathieu. vi

7 List of Plates 6. The Balcony at the Theatre du Gymnase, Paris, 1960, directed by Peter Brook. Photograph: Lipnitzki-Viollet. 7. Anna Proclemer and Giulia Lazzarini as Irma and Carmen in The Balcony, Piccolo Teatro, Milan, 1976, directed by Giorgio Strehler. Photoghraph: Luigi Ciminaghi. 8. Stephen Borst as the Police Chief and Phillip Murphy as Roger in the castration scene of The Balcony, the Performing Garage, New York, , directed by Richard Schechner. Photograph: David Behl. By courtesy of Richard Schechner. 9. Ginger Smyly as Virtue and Ralph Wheeler as Village in The Blacks, University of Berkeley Zellerbach Playhouse, Berkeley, California, 1972, directed by Robert Goldsby. 10. The Blacks at the Theatre de Lutece, Paris, 1959, directed by Roger Blin. Photograph: Lipnitzki-Viollet. 11. The final scene of The Blacks, St Mark's Playhouse, New York, 1961, directed by Gene Frankel. Photograph: Martha Swope. 12. The Screens at the Theatre de l'odeon, Paris, 1966, directed by Roger Blin. Photograph: Lipnitzki-Viollet. vii

8 Acknowledgements lowe a great deal to the many critics and scholars who have worked on Genet before me: the valuable studies of Richard Coe, Odette AsIan, Philip Thody, Bernard Dort, Lewis Cetta and Lucien Goldmann were particularly helpful to me. I am also indebted to the following colleagues and friends for reading part of the manuscript and making suggestions, corrections or comments on style or content: Fred Case, Josette Feral, Brian Fitch, Larry Kerskale, Karen Laughlin, Andrew Oliver and John Walker. I am also grateful to the two Editors of this series, Bruce King and Adele King, for giving me sound editorial advice, to the SSH Research Council of Canada for granting me a Leave Fellowship in 197&-77, and to Trinity College, University of Toronto, for offering me a Summer Research Grant in My special thanks go to my friend Jill Levenson for giving me constant encouragement, and for editing the whole typescript with so much professional skill. My greatest personal debt is to my husband Joe for his unique understanding and unflinching support. viii

9 Preliminary Nate I have used English titles for all texts published in translation and French titles for works not yet translated. Except as indicated, the numbers in parentheses following the quotations of Genet's plays refer to the paperback reprints listed in the Bibliography. In the case of Deathwatch, The Maids, and The Blacks, whose American and English paginations differ, I have used 'G:' to indicate the Grove Press page number, followed by 'F:' indicating the Faber and Faber page number. References to a few newspaper reviews are also given parenthetically in the text. References at the end give full publication details about books or articles not listed in the Bibliography, but only the titles of works which also appear in the Bibliography. Most publication details concerning translations of Genet's non-dramatic writings can be found in the References for Chapter 1. ix

10 Editors' Preface The Macmillan Modern Dramatists is an international series of introductions to major and significant nineteenth and twentieth-century dramatists, movements and new forms of drama in Europe, Great Britain, America and new nations such as Nigeria and Trinidad. Besides new studies of great and influential dramatists of the past, the series includes volumes on contemporary authors, recent trends in the theatre and on many dramatists, such as writers of farce, who have created theatre 'classics' while being neglected by literary criticism. The volumes in the series devoted to individual dramatists include a biography, a survey of the plays, and detailed analysis of the most significant plays, along with discussion, where relevant, of the political, social, historical and theatrical context. The authors of the volumes, who are involved with theatre as playwrights, directors, actors, teachers and critics, are concerned with the plays as theatre and discuss such matters as performance, character interpretation and staging, along with themes and contexts. x BRUCE KING ADELE KING