Marie Lenéru and the Theater of Ideas

This essay focuses on the theater of Marie Lenéru (1874-1918), a forgotten woman playwright of the twentieth century. After an introduction on the many obstacles facing women who wished to write for the stage in the first half of the century, the study shows how Lenéru overcame those barriers. Lenéru wrote plays of ideas, a type of socially conscious theater, in which she explored themes such as divorce, pacifism and the role of the intellectual woman. Her plays were directed by André Antoine, performed at the Comédie-Française, and acclaimed by such authors and theater critics as Catulle Mendès, Rachilde and Léon Blum. Beach discusses three of Lenéru's plays: Les Affranchis, La Maison sur le Roc, and La Triomphatrice.