Cocteau and "Le Numéro Barbette"

Cocteau and "Le Numero Barbette" LYDIA CROWSON • ONE OF THE ACCUSATIONS most frequently leveled against Jean Cocteau is that there is no continuity in his work, that he created merely for the sake of effect without having any real goal in mind. Yet, if the evidence is fairly examined, it becomes clear that this is not the case, at least in his conception of stage performance. One of his earliest esthetic formulations is an article entitled "Le Numero Barbette" which appeared in the July 1926 issue of the Nouvelle Revue Franfaise, and his last play, L'Impromptu du Palais Royal, produced and published in 1962, is a theatrical presentation of his theories of theater. The latter is in fact a refinement , a sophisticated version of the former. However dissimilar Cocteau's plays may appear, they are linked by the same high ideal of the craft of theater: if their likenesses have been obscured, it is because they are united not by a theme or a message but rather by a conception of the art of the stage, of what theater as spectacle means. Cocteau was never interested in a play qua text; instead, he strove to create a certain art-object/spectator relationship based on illusion and enchantment. That this essential aim never changed in the course ofhis career becomes evident through a comparison of "Le Numero Barbette" and L'Impromptu du Palais Royal. "Barbette" (the stage name of Vander Clyde) was one of the most highly respected trapeze artists and female impersonators of the 1920s and 30s. Born in Texas, he performed in music halls and circuses throughout Europe, although Paris - where he appeared at the Alhambra , the Casino de Paris, the Moulin Rouge, the Empire and the Medrano Circus - remained his favorite city. It was in the French capital 79 80 LYDIA CROWSON that Cocteau met him, saw his act and became intrigued by what he considered to be an outstanding example of theater craftsmanship. There is no doubt that Cocteau's attraction to Barbette's performance was largely sexual: the transvestite appeal of the act can hardly be overlooked. Cocteau writes, for example, that "[Barbette] is to such an extent the archetypal woman that he overshadows the most beautiful women who precede and follow him on the Program" ("Le Numero Barbette," p. 35). Moreover, Barbette made him understand why "great countries and civilizations cast men in women's roles not just for decency's sake" (p. 36). However, the subject matter of "Le Numero Barbette" is ultimately theoretical and oriented around questions of perception and illusion. From the transvestite's performance emerges one of the basic structures of Cocteau's theater. The strength and uniqueness of Vander Clyde's act lay in the fact that it was composed of (and could not exist without) two skills: the performer had to be not only a female impersonator but, in addition, an accomplished acrobat. When "Barbette" came on stage, he was dressed as a woman. To allay any suspicions the audience might have, he performed a kind of strip tease until he was wearing only a female acrobat's costume. In this way, he pantomimed a fairly erotic scene which "established" his sex. Yet, since "Barbette" was presented to the spectators as a tightrope artist, this sequence was actually only a beginning. As Cocteau remarks, "he throws his magic powder in everyone's eyes. He does it with such force that from now on he will be able to concentrate on his work as an acrobat" (p. 36). At the end of the act, he was applauded for his tightrope performance, and Cocteau was not the only reviewer to note the many curtain calls he received. Hence, he was an excellent acrobatic artist, enthusiastically praised for that talent alone. It was only after such a response that he took off his wig. From accounts of audience reaction, it seems clear that most people were taken completely by surprise. Cocteau describes the wave of astonishment in the room and many embarrassed, disbelieving faces. Just as Barbette had introduced his act by miming the essence offemininity, he ended it by playing an extremely masculine role. According to Cocteau, his simply being...