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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2014

“Un Tramway: Warlikowski’s Desire to Reignite American Theatre Europe.”

Xavier Lemoine

Résumé

Krzysztof Warlikowski and Wajdi Mouawad’s adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire for the Théâtre de l’Europe, Odéon, Un Tramway, was the sensation of Paris Spring 2010 season. But the sold out production got scathing reviews which deemed the play flawed, accusing French star Isabelle Huppert (Blanche) of stealing the show and Warlikowski of being pretentious with his erudite interpolations. Williams’s original script was defaced and emotions were smothered by aesthetic coldness. Public walkouts confirmed the tepid reception by the French critics. As a result, Un Tramway raises a number of questions about the meaning of Williams’s work today in Europe and about contemporary European theater. Does Warlikowski manage to derail a conventional reading by rejecting a stultifying realism steeped in Actor’s Studio acting style or does he succumb to a fashionable sterile multimedia collage? In other words, is Williams’s play saved or doomed by Warlikowski’s staging and was it misunderstanding or clairvoyance from the audience and the critics to reject the play? Finally, in the context of reception and theatrical history, does the Polish director offer a new reflection on European contemporary theater thanks to an American classic or does he repeat cultural clichés that have been plaguing transatlantic relations in the domain of the arts? To address theses questions, I will first look at the series of misunderstandings, especially involving stardom and the use of a canonical play, which misled the audience and implicitly raised questions about a Eurocentric universal. Then, by examining closely some stage and script choices, I will pinpoint the way hybridization, ghosting and expansion can provide ways to escape a number of limitations and point at how Williams’s work remains a contemporary productive site of creation.
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hal-01548644 , version 1 (27-06-2017)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01548644 , version 1

Citer

Xavier Lemoine. “Un Tramway: Warlikowski’s Desire to Reignite American Theatre Europe.” . John S. Bak. Tennessee Williams and Europe, Intercultural Encounters, Transatlantic Exchanges, DQR Studies in Literature (54), Rodopi, pp.323-343, 2014, 978-90-42063873-8. ⟨hal-01548644⟩
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