The Hanlon Brothers: From Daredevil Acrobatics to Spectacle Pantomime, 1833-1931

First Interlude: Jean-Gaspard Deburau

35 First Interlude: Jean-Gaspard Deburau Pierrot at the Théâtre des Funambules In the late 1860s, the Hanlon Brothers first began to experiment with a character named Pierrot. Prodded by Henri Agoust, they performed a series of underdeveloped pantomimes. Seemingly staged as an afterthought, these pantomimes prominently featured the beloved French character Pierrot. However, this character was hardly their own creation. And the pantomimes the Hanlons staged were not composed by the family. Rather, most were popularized by the great Parisian mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau. Pierrot and the nineteenth-century French pantomime were the featured attractions of the Théâtre des Funambules. Erected in 1816 on the boulevard du Temple, the Funambules was situated in one of Paris’s working-class neighborhoods . Initially the theatre’s manager, Nicolas Bertrand, intended to produce comedies and tragedies. However, in order to maintain the “integrity” of French theatre, the Ministre de l’Intérieur prohibited the Funambules from producing any play with dialogue. Bertrand’s theatre became home to startling dance and acrobatic routines performed on a high wire (hence the name Funambules, 36 first interlude meaning “tightrope walkers”). Due to licensing laws, the theatre was not granted permission to venture into any other genre until 1830. The pantomimes first produced at the Théâtre des Funambules were replete with “resounding blows of gross farce [and] nonsense,”1 hung upon the simplest of plots. Typically, the fierce, gallant hero Arlequin wooed the beautiful Colombine . The couple was then pursued by Colombine’s bourgeois papa Cassandre and by Cassandre’s simple-minded, easily distracted valet, Pierrot. Arlequin and Colombine were often assisted in their flight by Cupid and other magical spirits. Still early in the form’s evolution, Pierrot was a secondary character. Typically, he was either beaten by his master, kicked in the nose by Colombine, or hoodwinked by Arlequin when he waved his powerful, magical bat. Marginally involved in the dramatic action, this “dull, yet occasionally sly”2 Pierrot offered silent, comical commentary on (and diversion from) the principal dramatic action. Pierrot’s secondary status at the Théâtre des Funambules ended with the emergence of the Bohemian-born mime-acrobat Jean-Gaspard Deburau (1796– 1846). Understudying and playing minor roles, in 1819 Deburau made his first appearance as Pierrot in a production of Arlequin Médecin. Keeping with stage traditions, Deburau dressed himself in a comically over-sized costume for the part. For his performance, the mime wore a large buttoned-down white shirt, the sleeves of which extended beyond his hands, and white pants that flowed beyond his ankles. His visage, long and gaunt, was powdered white, emerging comically from the white folds of fabric surrounding his neck. Deburau played Pierrot in subsequent pantomimes, and by the early 1820s he established himself as the resident Pierrot at the Théâtre des Funambules. Gradually Deburau revolutionized the character of Pierrot, usurping the spotlight that previously belonged solely to Arlequin. Deburau’s Pierrot became the main attraction at the Funambules, and it was primarily through him that this minor theatre became the center of Parisian pantomime. Deburau’s Pierrot mystified the audience with his erratic, capricious behavior. Deburau’s famous grimaces embodied “Beaumarchais’s Figaro, the commedia character Pagliaccio, and the street kid of the Temple Quarter.”3 His utter lack of conscience liberated him from all deliberation or regret. Without a second thought, he would stomp on Cassandre’s foot or steal from his master’s pantry. Foolhardy and gluttonous , he quickly spent and consumed any fortune, food, or drink he was lucky enough to encounter. Pierrot in Action Synopses of Jean-Gaspard Deburau’s pantomimes were written and published in the 1850s by his son Charles and in the 1880s by Émile Goby, who had collaborated with Charles Deburau.4 In many, the predictable intrigue between Arlequin first interlude 37 and Colombine becomes secondary to Pierrot’s irrelevant and bizarre preoccupations . In Le Boeuf Enragé (The Enraged Ox), performed in 1827, Deburau’s Pierrot and Cassandre chase after Arlequin and Colombine, who have run off together.5 Each time Pierrot discovers Arlequin, the latter waves his magical bat and escapes, much to Pierrot’s bewilderment and frustration. During the course of this impossible pursuit, Pierrot is assailed by many distractions: he steals and devours pastries and swallows a gigantic pill to protect himself against colic; he is beaten by a laundry woman and gored by...