L'Aventure du Théâtre National Populaire (1951-1972) : matériaux pour une histoire culturelle du théâtre

• Auteur / Autrice : Emmanuelle Loyer
• Direction : Jean-François Sirinelli
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Histoire
• Date : Soutenance en 1996
• Etablissement(s) : Lille 3

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Théâtre national populaire

Théâtre -- Décentralisation

Résumé

Cette these vise a redonner toute la visibilite voulue a une action souvent occultee. En effet, les termes de "theatre civique" ou de "theatre citoyen" etaient, a quelques exceptions pres, bannis de la scene francaise depuis 1968. Comment, de 1947 a 1972, jean vilar, avec le festival d'avignon fonde en 1947 et le theatre national populaire dirige a partir de 1951, puis georges wilson, son successeur a la tete du tnp ont-t-ils vecu la courbe ascendante puis brutalement descendante du theatre populaire francais? dans l'apres-guerre, avignon puis le tnp drainent tous les espoirs d'une democratisation culturelle officiellement inscrite dans le preambule de la constitution de 1946. Par leur ambition sociale affirmee et leur esthetique dramatique, les deux creations de vilar deviennent l'embleme d'une reconciliation possible, le lieu d'une communion laique jadis desiree par les combattants de la resistance. Vingt ans plus tard, en 1968, alors que la politique culturelle de la veme republique semble solidement installee dans ses maisons de la culture, les jeunes contestataires descendus en avignon conspuent l'idee de theatre populaire, villipendent celle de "theatre service public", denoncent le mythe de la democratisation culturelle et crient "vilar, bejart, salazar". Etudier cette evolution, c'est parcourir quelques decennies d'une formulation specifiquement francaise de la problematique du theatre du peuple, lancee par la revolution de 1789, latente durant tout le xixeme siecle et vigoureusement exprimee au moment de l'affaire dreyfus pour irriguer toutes les interrogations theatrales du xxeme siecle. C'est egalement se donner les moyens de comprendre le ressurgissment actuel, dans le theatre francais, de l'exigence d'un theatre inscrit pleinement dans la cite.

This thesis wants to restore jean vilar and his action to his proper place a highly important one, which he had long been denied. Indeed, such expressions as "theatre civique" and" theatre citoyen" had been banned, for the most part, from the french scene. Jean vilar's then georges wilson's experience-wilson was the tnp's boss after vilar's departure in 1963-of the steady rise and abrupt fall of the french popular theater from 1947 to 1972 - with the creation of his festival d'avignon in 1947 and his nomination as head of the theatre national populaire in 1951-is a very telling one. After ww2, all hopes of a cultural democratization - an official goal, stated in the preamble to the 1946 constitution-focused on avignon and later on the theatre national populaire. Because of their declared social ambition and their theatrical aesthetics, both of vilar's creations became symbols of a possible reconciliation, of a laic communion the resistance fighters had dreamed of. Twenty years later, in 1968, as the cultural policy of the 5th republic seemed to go at a good pace in the maisons de la culture, the young rebels who came to avignon rejected the idea of a popular theater, sneered at that of a "civil service theater", jeered at the myth of a cultural democratization and shouted out : "vilar, bejart, salazar". Studying this development is running through a few decades of a specifically french answer to the idea of a theater for the people. A concept which first appeared in france during the 1789 revolution, continued to raise difficulties throughout the 19th century, and more acutely during the dreyfus affair, to later feed all the theatrical quests of the 20th century. Studying this development also enables us to understand the current rise, in the french theater, of a demand for a type of theater fully integrated to the polis.