The Screens
Encyclopedia
The Screens is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet
. Its first few productions all used abridged versions, beginning with its world premiere under Hans Lietzau
's direction in Berlin
in May 1961. Its first complete performance was staged in Stockholm
in 1964, two years before Roger Blin
directed its French premiere in Paris.
towards the end of 1959. Marc Barbezat's company L'Arbalète published it in February 1961, after which Genet re-wrote the play again. In 1976 Genet published a second, revised version, which appears in the French edition of his Complete Works.
, which Hans Lietzau
directed. A slightly revised version of the problematic German translation used in Berlin was staged by Leon Epp two years later at the Volkstheater
in Vienna
in 1963. Epp's interpretation emphasised the political conflict between the French and Algerians in the play.
In London
in 1964 Peter Brook
staged two-thirds of the play (its first twelve scenes, in a performance that lasted for two-and-a-half hours) at the Donmar Rehearsal Rooms
as part of his experimental "Theatre of Cruelty
" season with the Royal Shakespeare Company
; he abandoned plans to stage the complete text, partly due to dissatisfaction with Bernard Frechtman's translation.
The play's first complete performance was directed by Per Verner Carlsson at the Stadsteater in Stockholm
in 1964. Its five-hour-long production required six months of rehearsal preparation.
Roger Blin
directed the play's French première at the Odéon
theatre in Paris
, which opened on 21 April 1966. Genet became closely involved in rehearsals and published a series of letters to Blin about the theatre, the play, and the progress of its production. André Acquart designed the sets and costumes, providing via three collapsible platforms four levels which 27 gliding screens divided into different playing areas, as wells as "sumptuous and theatrical" costumes and make-up. Madeleine Renaud
played Warda, Jean-Louis Barrault
played the Mouth, Maria Casarès
played the Mother, and Amidou played Saïd. Blin also directed a German production in Essen
in November 1967.
Minos Volanakis
directed the play's US première in New York
1971. Patrice Chéreau
directed a production at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers in Nanterre
, near Paris, in 1983.
Jean Genet
Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
. Its first few productions all used abridged versions, beginning with its world premiere under Hans Lietzau
Hans Lietzau
Hans Lietzau was a German theatre director, actor, and producer. He was born in Berlin, Germany. In 1953 he directed Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers, with Ernst Schröder as Karl Moor. From 1969 to 1970 he was the theatre manager of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg...
's direction in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in May 1961. Its first complete performance was staged in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in 1964, two years before Roger Blin
Roger Blin
Roger Blin was a French actor and director notable for directing the first production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot....
directed its French premiere in Paris.
Textual history
Genet began writing the play in 1955 and continued to develop it over the following few years, completing a first version in June 1958. He re-wrote the play further while in GreeceGreece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
towards the end of 1959. Marc Barbezat's company L'Arbalète published it in February 1961, after which Genet re-wrote the play again. In 1976 Genet published a second, revised version, which appears in the French edition of his Complete Works.
Production history
The play premièred in an abridged German version in May 1961 at the Schlosspark-Theater in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, which Hans Lietzau
Hans Lietzau
Hans Lietzau was a German theatre director, actor, and producer. He was born in Berlin, Germany. In 1953 he directed Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers, with Ernst Schröder as Karl Moor. From 1969 to 1970 he was the theatre manager of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg...
directed. A slightly revised version of the problematic German translation used in Berlin was staged by Leon Epp two years later at the Volkstheater
Volkstheater, Vienna
The Volkstheater in Vienna was founded in 1889 by request of the citizens of Vienna, amongst them the dramatist Ludwig Anzengruber and the furniture manufacturer Thonet, in order to offer a popular counter weight to the Hofburgtheater...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1963. Epp's interpretation emphasised the political conflict between the French and Algerians in the play.
In London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1964 Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
staged two-thirds of the play (its first twelve scenes, in a performance that lasted for two-and-a-half hours) at the Donmar Rehearsal Rooms
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
as part of his experimental "Theatre of Cruelty
Theatre of Cruelty
The Theatre of Cruelty is a surrealist form of theatre theorised by Antonin Artaud in his book The Theatre and its Double. "Without an element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle," he writes, "the theatre is not possible...
" season with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
; he abandoned plans to stage the complete text, partly due to dissatisfaction with Bernard Frechtman's translation.
The play's first complete performance was directed by Per Verner Carlsson at the Stadsteater in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in 1964. Its five-hour-long production required six months of rehearsal preparation.
Roger Blin
Roger Blin
Roger Blin was a French actor and director notable for directing the first production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot....
directed the play's French première at the Odéon
Odéon
The Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe is one of France's six national theatres.It is located at 2 rue Corneille in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the left bank of the Seine, next to the Luxembourg Garden...
theatre in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, which opened on 21 April 1966. Genet became closely involved in rehearsals and published a series of letters to Blin about the theatre, the play, and the progress of its production. André Acquart designed the sets and costumes, providing via three collapsible platforms four levels which 27 gliding screens divided into different playing areas, as wells as "sumptuous and theatrical" costumes and make-up. Madeleine Renaud
Madeleine Renaud
Madeleine Renaud was a distinguished actress and a major figure in French theater in the 20th century. She was born Lucie Madeleine Renaud in Paris and died there, aged 94, in 1994....
played Warda, Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault was a French actor, director and mime artist, training that served him well when he portrayed the 19th-century mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau in Marcel Carné's 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis .Jean-Louis Barrault studied with Charles Dullin in whose troupe he acted...
played the Mouth, Maria Casarès
María Casares
María Casares was a Spanish actress and one of the most distinguished stars of the French stage. She was usually credited in France as Maria Casarès.-Early life:...
played the Mother, and Amidou played Saïd. Blin also directed a German production in Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
in November 1967.
Minos Volanakis
Minos Volanakis
Minos Volanakis was a Greek theatre director and translator.He studied with Carolos Koun, for whom he translated American plays into Greek, and first made his name for his translations of the dramas of his friend Jean Genet, as well as for productions of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and...
directed the play's US première in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
1971. Patrice Chéreau
Patrice Chéreau
Patrice Chéreau is a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor, and producer.-Biography:Patrice Chéreau was born in Lézigné, Maine-et-Loire, and went to school in Paris. At a young age he became well-known to Parisian critics as director, actor, and stage manager of his high-school theatre...
directed a production at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers in Nanterre
Nanterre
Nanterre is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located west of the center of Paris.Nanterre is the capital of the Hauts-de-Seine department as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Nanterre....
, near Paris, in 1983.
Sources
- Dichy, Albert. 1993. "Chronology." In White (1993, xiii-xxxv).
- Frechtman, Bernard, trans. 1963. The Screens. By Jean GenetJean GenetJean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
. London: Faber, 1987. ISBN 0571148751. - Lavery, Carl, Clare Finburgh, and Maria Shevtsova, eds. 2006. Jean Genet: Performance and Politics. Baisingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1403994803.
- Oswald, Laura. 1989. Jean Genet and the Semiotics of Performance. Advances in Semiotics ser. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP. ISBN 0253331528.
- Savona, Jeannette L. 1983. Jean Genet. Grove Press Modern Dramatists ser. New York: Grove P. ISBN 0394620453.
- Seaver, Richard, trans. 1972. Reflections on the Theatre and Other Writings. By Jean Genet. London: Faber. ISBN 0571091040.
- Styan, J. L. 1981. Symbolism, Surrealism and the Absurd. Vol. 2 of Modern Drama in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0521296293.
- White, EdmundEdmund WhiteEdmund Valentine White III is an American author and literary critic. He is a member of the faculty of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing.- Life and work :...
. 1993. Genet. Corrected edition. London: Picador, 1994. ISBN 0330306227.