Jean Racine: Mythos and Renewal in Modern Theater by Bettina L. Knapp (review)

108 MODERN DRAMA May of a combination of words, action, choreography and music-all intuitively perceived and then transformed into a concrete entity-the drama. The poet Paul Fort was seventeen years old at the time he founded the Theatre d'Art (1890). Though his goal was to create a symbolic, mystical and poetic theater where imagination and the senses would hold full sway, his productions were heteroclite and included Maeterlinck's symbolic drama L'Intruse, Rachilde's naturalistic play La Voix du Sang, Shelley's romantic tragedy The Cenci, the poetic readings of Mallarme's Le Guignon. Despite Fort's enthusiasm, the amateurish nature of his productions and the lack of drama and suspense implicit in the plays he chose, neither succeeded in enticing or captivating audiences. His venture was, therefore, ephemeral. More successful was Lugne-Poe's Thec1tre de l'Oeuvre (1893), also a "poet's theater." The high point of his directorship were the expertly-conceived productions of Maeterlinck's Pellias et Milisande, L'Intruse, Les Aveugles; the traumatic opening of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. Plays by foreign dramatists (Ibsen, Strindberg , Hauptmann) also did much to popularize his theatrical venture. A host of poetic theaters burgeoned forth at this period: Theatre des Poetes (1893) founded by Charles Leger; the Thec1tre de la Rive Gauche (1894) begun by Mme Tola Dorian, whose unusual production of Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's Axel caused a stir. Axel, written in 1872, had always been considered unplayable because of the lengthy philosophical tirades. Evidently the notion of physical renunciation , the couple's suicide at the end of the drama on the eve of what could have been total earthly joy, now found a responsive chord among spectators. The First Avant-Garde is valuable in that it lists and furnishes details not only concerning Antoine's Theatre-Libre and Lugne-Poe's Thec1tre de l'Oeuvre, but facts concerning a host of small theatrical groups which flourished at the end of the 19th century. Though these endeavors have faded into oblivion, their work remains important for students of theatrical history. BETIINA L. KNAPP Hunter College of the City University of New York JEAN RACINE: MYTHOS AND RENEWAL IN MODERN THEATER, by Bettina L. Knapp. University: U. of Alabama Press, 1971. 278 pp. $10.00. Newest of several recent books in English on Racine (after Weinberg, Mourges, and others) this one seems determined to stir up some enthusiasm for Racine or bust. It may just bust-less because of what it proposes for Racine,however, than because of its own inflated character. Everything about the book strikes me as excessive, beginning with the introductory material which has the subtlety of a brass band. There are name testimonials as to the book's psychological insights, its revelations for theatrical professionals; Henri Peyre calls its author one of the "finest scholar-teachers of literature in American universities" and he himself is called a "giant of international scholarship." A colleague at Hunter is thanked for reading the ms. and giving counsel. She should be thanked too for the rave review that she subsequently wrote on the book for The French Review. The book grew out, we are told, of an illumination or experience-a "searing" or "branding" that the author underwent while reading Racine in preparation for a course. The plays appeared to her as already fulfilling the requirements laid down by Antonin Artaud for a theater of cruelty. One might think this notion a 1972 BOOK REVIEWS 109 little far-fetched, but the concept of the "gentle" Racine has been questioned before. Moreover, high tragedy by definition involves violence and its ritual and mythic character is pretty much taken for granted. The author could see all this ideally brought out, Racine completely revitalized, by Hashing lights, choreographed movements, stylized delivery, sound effects, space arrangement, and other devices to complement the. text. One might wonder why the Artaud treatment should be proposed for Racine more than for any other classical dramatist, why Racine indeed whose greatness lies in his text and ought need external supports least of all. At any rate Mrs. Knapp is not the only one to have such illuminations, since directors like...