André Antoine by Jean Chothia (review)

Book Reviews 621 JEAN CHOntIA. Andre Antoine. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press 1991. pp. xviii, 212, illustrated. $49.50. Andre Alltoine will prove enlight~ning to those whose previous encounters in English wifh the eponymous French director (1858-1943) were limited to his own translated memoirs (1964), Samuel Waxman's study (1926), and the chapters and passages devoted to him in numerous books. A widespread impression held of Antoine is that he was chiefly important because in 1887 he founded the Theatre Libre, the first of the "independent theatres," and that, despite his subsequent career, his principal directorial contribution was in introducing stage naturalism at his first theatre. Antoine himself rebelled against this view and Jean Chothia demonstrates in his excellent study how limited it is. Antoine was, in fact, a remarkably eclectic director, whose prolific career ranged through hundreds of plays from every period and style; he was as at home in poetic tragedy as in the ironic, realistic plays known as comedies rosses which were identified with certain Theatre Libre dramatists. While he fostered numerous important new dramatists, many of whom might not otherwise have been produced, he also made consequential advances in the art of Shakespearean staging. Moreover, like William Poel with his Elizabethan stagings, Antoine staged intriguing revivals of seventeenthcentury French neoclassical drama that recreated the conditions of their original performances, including individualized onstage audiences in costume. His proclivity for individualizing even the briefest walk-on was epitomized in his masterful crowd scenes, for which he sometimes employed over 259 well-drilled extras. Most previous English-language treatments of Antoine largely confine themselves to Antoine's Theatre Libre period. At this venue, operated as a private SUbscription theatre to avoid censorship, Antoine - himself onc of Paris's most versatile actors used mostly amateur casts in penonnances that paid meticulous attention to character and environment. Sometimes he went to what were considered shocking lengths in the interests of visual accuracy (i.e., real slices of beef in a butcher shop setting). He also rocked the xenophobic Paris theatre world by mounting the most controversial nonFrench plays, including such then provocative works as Ibsen's Ghosts and Tolstoy's The Power ofDarkness. Is was largely because of Antoine's efforts that stage censorship was abandoned in France many years before it was in England. However, the Theatre Libre lasted only seven years. After closing the Theatre Libre, Antoine briefly codirected the state-subsidized Odeon (1896) before assuming control of the Theatre Antoine, where he provided high-quality productions for nearly a decade (1897- 1906). He then returned to the Odeon, which he made perhaps the most respected Parisian theatre of its day before his increasing tendency to spend lavishly on spectacle led to an economic debacle and his 1914 resignation. Subsequently he directed a number of silent films, making highly significant advances in this youthful medium. Chothia's book is the first in English to explore carefully the post-Theatre Libre period, including Antoine's film work. Chothia not only discusses the major productions, their historica1 significance, and 622 Book Reviews the public response to them, he also provides insights into Antoine's directorial personality (he was an autocratic perfectionist), his working methods, his managerial policies, and his influences. The subject is treated in rough chronological fashion in nine chapters. Fifty-four illustrations - many of staging diagrams - are provided, all of them well explained both in captions and in the consistently lucid text. One appendix displays a two-columned chronology of Antoine's life; another notes his production history. A select bibliography of French and English sources is included, but it is a bit too "select," and omits some of the only important Antoine studies in English, such as Langdon Brown's on Antoine's King Lear or Patti Gillespie's on the breakthroughs of his later period. Even the English edition of Antoine's memoirs is ignored. Antoine is eminently worthy of respect as one of the most impressive and influential metteurs en scene in directorial history, one whose impact stemmed not simply from naturalistic plays and performances but from a surprisingly catholic view of the best in world drama. He was responsible for outstandingly lifelike ensemble...