Roger Planchon: “I’m a Museum Guard”

styles in production Roger Planchon "I'm a Museum Guard" Roger Planchon is regarded as one of the eminent directors of the French theatre, with a career that spans over thirty-five years. He is one of three directors of the Thbtre National Populaire which is situated in Villeurbanne , a suburb of Lyons. Among Planchon's many productions are the classics,Tartuffe, Richard 1ii, B6renice and Dom Juan, and modern plays by Gatti, lonesco, Ghelderode, Brecht, and himself. This interview was taped on the occasion of Roger Planchon's visit to New York for the CSC Repertory Company's production of his play Gilles de Rals, in January 1981. It was conducted by Rosette Lamont. Both as a playwright and as a director you convey a profound feeling for the French countryside. Could we begin by talking about your childhood and your contact with this aspect of French life? I am the son of peasants, poor farmers, who came from villages. Iwas born at Saint-Chamond in the department of the Loire, on September 12, 1931, 97 and subsequently I lived with my parents in Lyons, and later in Ardeche with my grandfather. Until I was fourteen I looked after cows, herded cattle. I never liked school. My mother died when I was very young and my father put me in a college, that's a private school, but there also I did not read until a teacher, a wonderful man, noticed me-1 don't know why-and began to bring all kinds of things to my attention. At fifteen I discovered, all at once, painting, literature, philosophy, the cinema. I was very impressed by poetry, painting, philosophy, but it all seemed so difficult, not to read or look at, but do. So I made up my mind to do something easy: theatre. Of course, if you had asked me why I was going into the theatre when I was twenty, I would have given you a thousand reasons, but with the passage of time I know less and less why I do what I do. But also, as time goes on I feel more and more involved, more and more passionate about the theatre. I see it as a complete universe. Let me tell you the story of a Japanese painter. He would say throughout his life: "Soon I'll know how to paint." When he reached eighty he said: "I'll know how to paint soon," and he died. Well, in a while, if we live that long, I'll tell you: "Soon I'm going to find out what theatre is." How did you form your first group, the nucleus of your company? I met a number of young people who shared my interest in the theatre. Some of them are still with me, and one of them is my wife. There was Claude Lochy, Robert Gilbert, Isabelle Sadoyan, our costume designer, and Georges Barrier. We met in the caveaux of Lyons, cafe theatres, or clubs on the model of the famous cave Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris. All of us held some kind of job, but we all knew that we wanted to do something else, that we would do theatre. The only space made available to us was tiny church halls. In 1950 we pieced together a montage of scenes from Courteline and Feydeau, Bottines et collets montes, a show in the style of the Mack Sennett films. All of us were crazy about old American films. I remember hitchhiking to Paris to see movies, plays. But also, from the start, we wanted to do classics, and so one of our first shows was Twelfth Night. That's the combination we still favor. In 1952 we were able to use a real theatre, a tiny one, but with a stage, lighting, the essentials. Still no money. Even the creation of the Club des Amis du Th6'tre de la Com6die did not resolve our endemic lack of funds. Still we went on, playing every night, creating new plays, revealing the new avant-garde dramatists to our audience: Adamov, lonesco. We opened on January 1st, 1953, with Rocambole, a caricature-style lampoon full of...