A New Play by Apollinaire

A New Play By Apollinaire Willard Bohn In July 1914, Guillaume Apollinaire, who was at that time the leader of the Parisian avant-garde, composed an important pantomime in collaboration with three other artists: A quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? (What Time Does A Train Leave For Paris?). The only copy of this work known to exist was recently discovered by the present author in a private library in the United States.1 Modeled on a 1913 poem by Apollinaire, “The Musician of Saint Merry,”2 the pantomime featured a scenario by Apollinaire, “music by Alberto Savinio, sets and staging by Francis Picabia and Marius de Zayas” according to the title page. Unfortunately, no contributions by the latter three individuals have been discovered—if indeed these ever existed. For the outbreak of World War I one month later prevented the collaborators from going ahead with their plans to electrify the avant-garde with their revolutionary new work. In 1917, concurrent with the production of The Breasts of Tiresias, Apollinaire apparently attempted to revive his original project as a ballet, but his death in 1918 effectively relegated this project to oblivion.3 While the 1914 scenario is ostensibly Apollinaire’s independent creation, it is readily apparent that his fellow collaborators contributed various ideas that helped to determine the eventual shape of the pantomime. Analysis of influential currents and cross-currents reveals, as we will see, that Apollinaire was indebted to the Italian Futurists as well. The plot of What Time Does A Train Leave For Paris? is deceptively simple. On the whole it follows that of the original poem quite closely, except for the final scene which was in­ vented specifically for the pantomime. With the exception of this scene, the major innovations are limited to stage effects and costumes. Scene 1. A poet stands before a luminous screen occupying the entire stage. As a number of silhouettes pass across the 73 74 Comparative Drama screen, he greets each one with a brief, jerky, automatic ges­ ture, thus dramatizing the first line of the poem (“At last I have the right to greet beings whom I do not know”). Then a curtain descends to cover the screen, and a powerful voice cries through a megaphone: I sing not of this world nor of other stars I sing all the possibilities of myself beyond this world and the stars I sing the joy of wandering astray and the pleasure of dying thereby. This is the second stanza of the poem. Scene 2. A strip of cloth passes across the curtain with the date specified in the poem: May 21, 1913. The curtain rises to reveal millions of flies flying around a luminous column—a symbol of Beelzebub. The lights dim, then come back up to reveal sets representing a rooftop view of Paris: rooftops, smoking chimneys, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and a Tall Factory Chimney. A hand printed on the wall indicates a placard reading “rue Aubry-le-Boucher.” Then a man with no eyes, no nose, and no ears enters, crosses the stage, and disappears into the street. The Eiffel Tower pro­ jects slides or movies into the audience, accompanied by sounds evoking modem city life and by various shouted phrases, e.g., “When I was a child there were no automobiles” and “Help!— An airplane is buzzing us.” Scene 3. A small square with a fountain. In the background stand the three monuments and the Tall Factory Chimney seen previously. The faceless man slowly crosses the stage, playing a flute, and stops before the fountain. All sorts of women crowd around him, wild-eyed, their arms stretched out before them. These include a “headless woman, an armless woman, a blue woman, a red woman, a bald woman, a smartly dressed woman, a little girl, an old lady, some good-looking whores, women with flowing tresses, nude women.” The faceless man ceases playing, drinks from the fountain, resumes playing, and retraces his steps—followed by the women . Scene 4. Slides and/or movies present a survey of life and its variety: European urban and country life, trains, tropical flora and fauna, the...