1996 · 01 · L’illusion Comique · (The Theatrical Illusion) · Corneille · Vigner (EN)
Français
DeutschAlcandre:
The rarest minds to this devote their nights,
And all of those on whom Apollo smiles
Devote to it some of their learned works.
Besides, if standing's rated by one's wealth,
The theatre's a profitable line;
Your son's extracted from this pleasant trade
More affluence than had he stayed at home...
Pridamant:
I dare not now complain. I see how much
His present trade is better than my own.
Admittedly, I was at first alarmed;
I thought the stage was still as once it was.
I criticized it as I did not know
Its spell, its glamour and its usefulness.
But, since your explanations, in my joy
This error and my sadness have been banned. [1]
Written in 1636, L'ILLUSION COMIQUE (THE THEATRICAL ILLUSION) is unique in PIERRE CORNEILLE’s œuvre.
"Corneille’s genius lies in breaking away from all the theatrical forms of which he is both witness and master - commedia dell'arte, comedy, and tragedy - to invent on their basis a new theatre which was a posteriori to be called classic. L'ILLUSION COMIQUE is somewhere halfway between the ancient theatre and the new. This new theatre has not yet taken definite shape, it is as yet incomplete, in the process of growing out of new values - the values of humanism. It is a work-in-progress in every respect. In terms of architecture, theatre, so far an open-air spectacle performed in the streets, returns to the interior of buildings. In terms of content, it focuses on amusement and entertainment. But Corneille says, what interests us is not entertainment for entertainment’s sake, pleasure for pleasure’s sake; what interests us is probably more important: the human being. The choice of L'ILLUSION COMIQUE for the opening of the Centre Dramatique de Bretagne was to bear witness to this: its importance lay in the very fact that it represented more than anything else the painful transition from the old to the new, that duality which is the secret of life and of all things created. I share the belief that one cannot invent the future without harking back to the past, without sharing, once again, responsibility with our fathers, the very fathers we criticise."
ÉRIC VIGNER
Matamore:
I once again command, be not alarmed.
At will, I terrify; at will, I charm.
According to my humour, I inspire
Men with affright and women with desire. [2]
"L'ILLUSION COMIQUE thus touches upon an eternal theme: the relation between a father and his son and their mutual forgiveness as they see and find each other in the mirror of the stage. Pridamant, for six years without news of his son Clindor, asks the ‘magician’ Alcandre to find Clindor. Before the father’s eyes Alcandre conjures up his son’s past. Time passes before his eyes, different persons, shadows, people alive… throughout the piece, what happens on stage leads up to the moment of pardon. The father must forgive his son, the son forgive his father; then everything becomes possible."
ÉV
Pridamant:
But, great magician, this at least believe:
They will live ever in my memory. [1]
"Clindor meets Matamor, a figure out of old-time theatre, born of an ancient culture, - or Matamor meets him, I can’t say which. The exchange between them is very fine, this divesting oneself, relinquishing... Matamor relinquishes his role, takes off his clothes to leave his place to Clindor. Matamor has killed the famous captain of the commedia dell’arte, but he has shot his bolt and he knows it. He is about to become a Don Quixote. But sooner or later he has to confront reality. The “comical illusion” is the transition from illusion to reality. Corneille traces the development of modern theatre, opens the door to a form of theatre that is to emerge only much later."
ÉV
"The first thing to remember is that at the beginning there is nothing: it is the first day of the world. An actor comes on stage and tells a story, and this is when it all begins. Then, another one follows him, follows his footsteps, digs something up, picks up a theme, discovers its vestiges; then comes another player, and still others… and in the end what has been created is a memory, life, a story. And next day one starts all over again, and so on and so forth every day…"
ÉV
"What is called Life in creation is, in all forms and in all beings, one and the same spirit, a single flame“… To enjoy images, to love them for themselves, would demand that the psychoanalyst accept a poetic education on the fringes of all such erudition. Hence fewer dreams by way of the animus and more by way of the anima. Less of understanding by way of intersubjective psychology and more of sensitivity through a psychology of the familiar."
Gaston Bachelard [3]
The production is shown at the most important theatres of France and is nominated for the Prix MOLIÈRE.
© Photography : Alain Fonteray
Texts assembled by Jutta Johanna Weiss
Translation from the French by Herbert Kaiser
© CDDB-Théâtre de Lorient
