Jacques Copeau
Shuster, George N.
February 9, 1927 THE COMMONWEAL 381 JACQUES COPEAU By GEORGE N. SHUSTER THE evening before his return to France, JacquesN Copeau saw that the Theatre Guild production of The Brothers...
...But it should be borne in mind that his example has pretty definitely guided the various things now being done in France on behalf of religious drama...
...Even the movements of rebellion, notably Antoine's naturalistic stage, had gone off on the wrong scent...
...It was pleasant to go there early in the evening for one of the brilliant public lectures about poetry or dramatic art, given by such men as Jules Romains and Paul Valtry...
...When he first took up the practice of play production, Copeau was known as a dramatic critic and a leader of young litterateurs grouped by La Nouvelle Revue Fran~aise...
...In his opinion, the drama staged some years ago by the Theatre Guild as The Tidings Brought to Mary is the one in which Claudel has best conformed with the various technical requirements of the theatre...
...The members of his company "rotated" so that the star of one performance became the ingenue of another...
...The Compagnons de Notre-Dame are also a traveling company of amateurs...
...It will be obvious to those familiar with the religious drama of Henri Ghton and his company of Compagnons de NotreDame that a similar purpose and method prevails here...
...O cruel spring...
...His idea, therefore, is now a fresh, native stock company going from the country to the city rather than a blas~ association headed the other way...
...Therefore it was necessary first to re-create the instrument of drama--that is, the stage proper--and secondly to create the drama itself...
...If there was something of professorial commendation in these words, there was nothing academic in the man who uttered them...
...He felt, however, that the work of Claudel would probably fall flat, not because it lacks magnificent qualifies, but because the difficulties of product/on are too great...
...To this new "school," where a definite regimen is followed and where the foundation is strictly classical, Copeau is now going back...
...Jacques Copeau's mind and face are those of a man who must live and die in the atmosphere of drama...
...By going back to the classics, by learning how to act in interpreting the classics, one might (he believed) establish the foundation upon which originality could successfully stand...
...February 9, 1927 THE COMMONWEAL 381 JACQUES COPEAU By GEORGE N. SHUSTER THE evening before his return to France, JacquesN Copeau saw that the Theatre Guild production of The Brothers Karamazov, which he had come to direct, was a decided success, that ancient connections established in the United States during I917 had survived the stress of time, and that at least one group of New York actors was eager to acquire whatever of technique or inspiration was needed to qualify their work as an art...
...This company was the thing upon which he concentrated...
...He tried out plays by young authors who would not have been given a chance elsewhere...
...Recently, he declared, a successful effort had been made with l'Illusion, written by himself...
...When Copeau abandoned the Vieux-Colombier in I924, that little old theatre of the Rive Gauche had accumulated an extraordinary amount of attention and atmosphere...
...And so, in spite of the protests of many friends, M. Copeau assembled a number of young people who promised to develop in the life of the theatre, packed up as much of the spirit of the Vieux-Colombier as could be transported, and departed for the hamlet of Pemand-Vergelesses, in the Cbte-d'or...
...To his mind, the French theatre had succumbed to commercialism in root and branch...
...and though their primary object is religious rather than technically artistic, it is correct to say that they have developed a charming and fervent style of presentation...
...Recently, during the observance of the Franciscan centenary, Copeau took the title r61e in Gh6on's Saint-Frangois d'Assise, given in the theatre of the Champs-Elys6es...
...They were in danger of succumbing to the very influences which they had set out to combat...
...The peculiar virtue of Copeau lay in the fact that he avoided trying to evolve the new out of nothing...
...Prior to the war and his own conversion, Gh~on was a member of the Nouvelle Revue Fran~aise group...
...No direct connection exists, however, between the two organizations...
...And in the famous "school" which existed side by side with the theatre proper, he strove to instil definite principles into the young...
...The meeting was arranged because M. Copean was kind enough to think I represented a section of the public with which he has particularly much in common...
...M. Ghton has left us fully informed of his great indebtedness to Copeau...
...The VieuxColombier continues to be interested primarily in the art of drama as such...
...Apart from that, his habit was to be most tolerant to diverse experiment...
...Copeau spoke warmly of Gh6ou, confirm:_.~g the present writer's conviction that Le Comedien et la Grace--a play rejected by the Comedie Fran~aise but published with great success--would probably get a good hearing in the United States...
...and his first play, entitled l'Eau de Vie, was staged at the VieuxColombier...
...it was more pleasant still to wait for the play, rendered by a company upon which Copeau had expended all his energies as a director of acting and mise en sc~ne...
...Thoughts for a Young Girl Fold and pack away Your lilac-scented dress, Not again shall spring Be a warm caress...
...Incidentally he saw me...
...Forced by the incessant command, "Rehearse, rehearse," neither actors nor directors had time for creative leisure, for rising above their work instead of being crushed under it...
...The reason, M. Copeau said to me, was the strain imposed by the ceaseless routine of theatre life in the city...
...Why then, was the Vieux-Colombier abandoned...
...In parting, Copeau spoke highly of the actors among whom he had worked here, admiring their eagerness and serious devotion, but hoping that the tendency to expand and to prosper would not inspire a tendency to flabbiness...
...BOR6mLD LUNDBERG LEE...
...He declared that his present object would be to develop a few original plays which might then be produced by the young company in a number of large cities...
...Not again syringas Shall have so sweet a smell Nor shall you walk the path Where petals fell...
...It need hardly be said here that this singularly energetic, idealistic and sacrificial dramatist is a converti...
...Later on, the same theatre produced what was practically the first of the "mystery plays"--Le Pauvre sons l'Escalier--Copeau himself taking the r61e of Saint Alexis...
...Listen To one who stands apart, Walk gently, walk lightly On a young girl's heart...
Vol. 5 • February 1927 • No. 14
