Directors: Last Bow for Barrault?

Jean Louis Barrault is one of the towering figures of the French stage. A brilliant mime and tragedian, he has also been a potent instigator of dramatic innovation as director of the Théâtre de France, giving world premières of works by such playwrights as Beckett, lonesco and Genet. Last week Barrault interrupted rehearsals at his company’s permanent home, the Odéon Theater on Paris’ Left Bank, to announce that he had been dismissed as its director. The coup de grâce was administered in a curt letter from his old friend, André Malraux, France’s Minister of Culture, who had asked Barrault to take over the theater nine years ago.

The cause of Barrault’s dismissal was his role in last May’s student riots. During the demonstrations, anarchist rebels from the Sorbonne “liberated” the Odéon and turned it into a discussion hall. They also destroyed 50% of the sets, ripped up red velvet seats and urinated on costumes. Barrault wept when he saw the damage, but government officials believed that he tacitly allowed the rebels to take over. Barrault also took the stage to proclaim his sympathy with student goals and to denounce France’s “bourgeois culture.”

Barrault’s removal set off a chorus of protest by French stage figures and critics. Nearly half of Barrault’s actors vowed to quit the Théâtre de France if he decides to form a new company of his own. Meanwhile, the Odéon is deserted. Only an occasional patrolling gendarme walks its stage.