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THEATER IN PARlS (Translated by R. G. MAHIEu) EVERY YEAR the Paris dramatic critics give a "Moliere Award," the purpose of which is to acknowledge the best performance of the season. I am a member of the jury and take part in the discussions which oftentimes are impassioned. This year, for a change, almost without any objections being raised, we selected "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" by Brecht, performed last winter by Jean Daste and his troupe, the Comedie de Saint-Etienne. Personally, I am pleased with this choice. I deem it a good thing to pay tribute to Brecht (even though it happens after his death) and also to the staging by Daste, who, with a happier and even more delicate touch in his interpretation than that given by the Berliner Ensemble, will not soon be forgotten in France. To be snre, other producers had already staged some plays by Brecht: Vilar and Philippe performed "Mother Courage" at the Theatre National Populaire, and Jean Marie Serreau "Man Is Man" and "The Exception and the Rule." Indeed, for three years in snccession the Berliner Ensemble gave performances in Paris. But none of these performances stirred up the public's enthusiasm as did the staging by Daste. In France, by now, it is well agreed tI,.t Brecht is not a dramatist preoccupied with a problem play nor is he an unbearable, ill-mannered pedant as had been said of him-a misconception spread not by Brecht's enemies but by the journalists who were familiar only with Brecht's critical pronouncements. The warm imagination, the light touches, the amplitude which Daste succeeded in imparting to "The Chalk Circle" have always been present in the play, but it had not been presented before in a style adapted to the Paris public. But however deserving this decision of the Moliere jnry may be, we must not forget the less known authors. Personally, I wish that "Histoire de Vasco" by Georges Schehade, "Paolo-Paoli" by Arthnr Adamov and ''Pas Perdus" by Gascar had been brought to ti,e public's attention. The work of Schehade is already important; his poems are well known and ti,e oriental background of the autI,or gives his smooth, flexible images a striking ease. But it is on the stage that ScMhade has been most successful: "Monsieur Boble" performed ten years ago was one of the great successes of the "new Parisian theatre." In October, when staging Schehade's "Histoire de Vasco" at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, Jean Louis Barrault endeavored to present Schehade in all his richness. 130 1958 THEAlER IN PARIS 131 The play tells the story of the life of a barber who, because of unforeseen circumstances and the will of a dictator-the Mirador General-, is forced into the war. Strange war indeed where the men are changed into women and into treesl Here we get Aristophanes and Chaplin together-the Chaplin of "The Great Dictator." The lively anti-militarism, the warm and humorous pacifism which permeates the "Ristoire de Vasco" could not, however, please everybody: there were many objections to the play. It seems that in October, the Paris "official" critics already were quite sensitive about the subjcct of military honor; daring comments on that subject from the pen of earlier authors are hard to imagine nowadays, and one sees the proof of it in Barrault, ScMhade 'and Vasco. It is true that Barrault quite unintentionally had done injury to the play by spreading the action on too vast a stage, by adding an epic grandeur not at all in keeping with the light, poetic touch of Schehade. But the fact remains that the play was not received as it should have been and polemics ensued: one still remembers the fight that pitted the defender of the play, Jacques Lemarchand, against the Don Diegue of French official criticism, R. Kcmp, a dUl:able old man, the only survivor left from the days of Emile Augier. However, a few weeks after Vasco a new "scandale" was in the making, the one caused by Adamov's "Paolo-Paoli," performed at the Vieux Colombier by the director of one of the most remarkable small theaters, Roger...

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