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An Investigation of the Cultural Environment Which Influenced Andre Antoine and Produced the Theatre—Libre This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 6 5 -5 6 7 9 SPORRE, Robert Alfred, 1922- AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT WHICH INFLUENCED ANDRE ANTOINE AND PRODUCED THE THEATRE—LIBRE. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1964 Speech—Theater University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT WHICH INFLUENCED ANDR^ ANTOINE AND PRODUCED THE T h £$TRE-LIBRE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillm ent of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University by Robert Alfred Sporre, B.A., M.F.A. ■XXX X -X The Ohio State University 1964 Approved by Roy w . Bowen, Adviser Department of Speech PLEASE NOTE: Not original copy. Several pages have indistinct print. Filmed as r e c e i v e d . University M icrofilms. DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the two people who have given me the energy and inspiration to complete the degree. Without the assistance of my mother, Mrs. Alfred Sporre, and Samuel T. Wilson, this work would have never been accomplished. This acknowledgment can be only a small token of my debt to them. Without the continued challenge offered by Roy H. Bowen, my adviser, this topic would not have been attempted. His interest in naturalism oreated an urge within me to find the source of its vital­ ity. Yet, this dissertation would have never been completed without the assistance of John H. McDowell; besides obtaining the necessary promptbooks, he created a scholastic atmosphere which inspired the student to achieve goals beyond his present sights. Those faculty members of Ohio State University whose intellectual stim ulation made my sojourn there more than exciting were Charles C. R itter, George Crepeau, Robert W. Wagner, and John W. Black. Above a ll, I want to thank the Interlibrary Loan Department of the Oxley Thompson Library for assistance in obtaining all the published plays which Andre Antoine produced at the Th^tre-Libre. i i VITA June 2 5 , 1922 Born - Minneapolis, Minnesota 1949 ................... B.A., State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 1957 ................... M.F.A., Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas 1957-1960. Assistant to the Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Instructor in Drama, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 1960-1962. Graduate Assistant in Speech, Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1963 ................... Assistant Professor of Speech, Wisconsin State University at Platteville, Wisconsin PUBLICATIONS "The Dance in Opera: 1700 to 1850.” Players Magazine, March, 1962 FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Theatre Studies in Dramatic Literature. Professor Charles C. Ritter Studies in Theatre History. Professor John McDowell Studies in Speech Correction. Professors Ruth Beckey and Henry Moser Studies in Cinematography. Professor Robert Wagner CONTENTS Page LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS........................................................................................................ v C h a p te r I . THE INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 1 D efinition of Terms Aims and Lim itations I I . THE AFTERMATH OP THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT....................................... 20 The Socio-Political Background Romanticism in Prance The School of Good Sense Emile Augier Alexandre Dumas fils Victorien Sardou P a i n t i n g Mus ic I I I . THE THEATRICAL ENVIRONMENT PROM 1875 TO 1 8 9 0 .......................... 62 The Com^die-Francaise The Od^on The Boulevard Theatres Francisque Sarcey IV . VARIOUS IMMEDIATE NATURALISTIC INFLUENCES UPON ANDR^ ANTOINE............................................................................................................. 147 Hyppolyte Taine and Ernest Renan The de Goncourt Brothers simile Zola Henri Becque The life iningen Players V. THE NATURALISTIC FEATURES OP ANTOINE'S TH^^TRE-LIBRE. 186 P la y w r ig h t Acting and Directing The Scenery V I. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.............................................................................. 221 APPENDIX...................................................................................................................................... 235 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................ 241 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS P l a t e P ag e I. Opening pose from Act I, L*Aventuriere by Augier ...... 79 II. Scene from Act II, L1 Aventuriere by A ugier .............................. 80 III. Scene from Act III, L*Aventuriere by Augier .............................. 81 IV. Scene from Act I, Le Mariage de Viotorine by George Sand . 84 V. Scene from Act II, Hernani by Hugo .................................................. 85 VI. Final soene of Act IV, Hernani by Hugo ....................................... 86 VII. Groundplan for Acts I & V, Le Demi-Monde by Dumas fils . 91 V III. Groundplan for Act I, L*Ami Fritz by Erckmann 8s Chatrian . 92 IX. Groundplan for Act II, Le Mariage de Victorine by George S a n d ............................................. 93 X. Groundplan for Act II, Hernani by Hugo ....................................... 94 XI. Groundplan for Act III, Hernani by Hugo ....................................... 95 XII. Groundplan for Le Gendre de M. Poirier by Augier and S a n d e a u ......................................................................................................................... 96 X III. Groundplan for Act I, Les Fourchambault by Augier .............. 97 XIV. Groundplan for Act I, Mademoiselle de la Seigli^re by S a n d e a u ....................................................... 98 XV. Groundplan for Act III, Mademoiselle de la Seigliere by S a n d e a u ......................................................................................................................... 99 XVI. Groundplan for L* Aventur ie re by A ugier .......................................... 100 XVII. Groundplan for Acts I, II, III, & V, Mademoiselle de Belle- Isle by Dumas p ^ r e ......................................................................................................101 v XVIII. First Court Scene Groundplan for Hamlet by Shakespeare. 114 XIX. Second Court Scene Groundplan for Hamlet by Shakespeare . 115 XX. Detail of Second Court Scene Groundplan for Hamlet by Shakespeare ............................................................................... 116 XXI. Scene from Act III, Hernani by Hugo ................................................. 117 v i CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The major tenets of acting, directing, and scene design of today*s theatre have been shaped by a single event. The origin of these precepts can be traced to the founding of the Theatre-Libre by Andre Antoine in 1887. The artistic attainment of the Th^eut re-Libre spawned sim ilar European groups of which Otto Brahm*s Freie Buhne was the most immediate and best known. In the United States, the following generation saw the growth of the art theatres which also appear to be related to Antoine*s work. Kenneth ivlacgowan states a representative view in believing that the genesis of the American little theatre movement can be traced to Antoine*s Th^tre-Libre through the art theatres; and, in turn, the American university theatrical development can be related to the community theatre movement begun in the lS20*s. This chain of theatrical phenomena has been lengthened to the extent that an influence can be seen currently in the American professional theatre. Therefore, an investigation of the era which produced the Theatre-Libre and its principles might be in order to further an under­ standing of our own theatre*s heritage. In France, the nineteenth century was one of turmoil. From the French Revolution to 1880, the French government was in a constant state of unrest. Six forms of government existed during this period. A similar unrest in the arts is noticeable, for painting and play- writing progressed from neoclassicism through romanticism and realism to naturalism which found a home in the Theatre-Libre. To understand properly the development of naturalism in the French theatre, a survey of the socioeconomic conditions of the epoch is necessary. Such a survey should also quicken our insight into the various individual phases of our total inquiry. Definition of Terms Our investigation first requires a generalization of several words—reality, truth, and verism. Reality "is obviously conceived as the orderly world of nineteenth-century scienoe, a world of cause and effect, a world without miracle, without transcendence.**^- Truth is the degree of success with which the artist has been able to express his experiences of reality. Verism is the detached and objective manner in which the artist views reality and abstracts his interpretations. To understand fully the development of an increasing realistic approach to the theatre and to the other arts, a definition of terms is needed due to the semantics of these words. To stress the specific nature of these term$ realism and naturalism, their French spelling (realisme and naturalisme) w ill be used hereafter. Throughout this paper, these terms and other related terms employed w ill be the conventional ones used in the nineteenth-century in France. •^Rene" Wellek, Concepts of C riticism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1963), p. 241. The re-emergence of the problems of realisms has been always a potent tradition for "realism in the wide sense of fidelity to nature is indubitably a main
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