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SUNSHINE AND SUBSTANCE: THE COMIC THEATER OF ACHARD, ANOUILH, AYME, ROUSSIN IN THE PAST FEW YEARS the American theater has become increasingly aware of a number of French playwrights whose existence they had previously all but ignored. Jean Anouilh, who began writing for the theater in 1931 and has long been considered a master in France, was for many years known here only as the author of a sombre Antigone which, even with the combined talents of Katharine Cornell and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, ran for a brief sixty-four performances. Marcel Achard, first produced in Paris in 1923, and a great favorite of the French public since then, waited until 1949 for a successful presentation in the United States, and then only in the form of an "adaptation" by S. N. Behrman. The fates of Andre Roussin and Marcel Ayme have been happier, for they are playwrights of more recent vintage, and have reached Broadway within a decade of their Paris debuts, although with varying degrees of success. All of this is not accidental, or at any rate it is only partly so, for there are radical differences among these four dramatists, which make some of them more palatable to American audiences than others. Marcel Achard was one of the most popular playwrights in the France of the period between the two World Wars, and his popularity continues today. He represents a type of boulevard play which is typical of the nineteen twenties and thirties, in which entertainment is the prime purpose, combining clever dialogue, a simple but often artificial plot, and the familiar triangle theme. It is perhaps unfair to say that Achard is simply another writer of the boulevard theater, however, for his plays usually have a certain poetic quality which is lacking in most plays of the commercial theater. His first success was Voulez-voU8 iouer avec moli (Come Play With Me), produced by Dullin at the Atelier in 1924. This simple tale of love in the circus appealed immediately to the public for its combination of sentimentality with broad humor, tender scenes of love and longing alternated with kicks and somersaults. Already in this early play, Achard established the kinds of characters he would use henceforth : the sentimental, dreamy and somewhat ridiculous hero, the coquettish young woman. We find them again in Achard's best-known play, Jean de la lune, presented by Jouvet in 1929. Jef, sweet and quixotic, falls in love with Louise, his best friend's mistress. When he discovers that she has been unfaithful to his friend, he is not convinced 243 244 MODERN DRAMA December that she is "bad," and asks her to marry him. After years of marriage, we discover that she has not changed, and has put several pairs of horns on poor "Jean de la lune." But in the end, when she is about to leave him for another man, Jef convinces her that she is not really that kind of woman, and because of his faith in her and his blindness to her real conduct, she realizes that Jef can be all things to her: husband, brother, associate, accomplice-and even lover. "Jean de la lune" has succeeded in imposing his dream upon a cruel reality. For these characters of Achard are not unhappy people, although they may suffer for a time. They are able to come to terms with life, either because their dreams dominate, or because they do not expect too much. Although love (or what the French call l'amour, which is perhaps not quite the same thing) is the favorite theme of Achard, it is not usually seen in a highly romantic light as a blinding passion: time and again it is suggested that one can forget quickly, and be cured of love in a matter of weeks. Achard has to date written more than thirty comedies, many of which have enjoyed great success in France. Some French critics believe that Achard has become as facile as the average commercial writer, and instead of being true to the best in himself, namely to the cultivation of the tender poetic streak, has taken the easy road to success. His latest play represents, to a...

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