Description
A RARE INVITATION TO THE SECOND OF THE TIRÉASIAS UDDERS
Invitation to a conference on Guillaume Apollinaire given by the woman of letters Madame Aurel, whose Salon Apollinaire had frequented, with readings of poems byAlcohols and Case d'Armons, as well as the performance of the first act ofover-realist dramae" Les Mamelles de Tirésias - This is the second performance of the play; the first, which was stormy to say the least, was one of the founding events of the Surrealist movement. Handwritten addition to the cast of Louise Marion, who played the lead role.
When Apollinaire composed, at the request of Pierre Albert-Birot, Les Mamelles de TirésiasHe struggled to find a term to describe his play, hesitating for a long time between "supernaturalist"borrowed from the philosophers, andsurreal"an adjective of his own invention. In March 1917, the poet wrote to Paul Dermée: "All things considered, I think it would be better to adopt surrealism rather than supernaturalism, which I had initially used. Surrealism does not yet exist in dictionaries. [...]" In May, when Apollinaire first used the term "sur-realistic"to present the ballet Parade (Excelsior 11 May), new debate; Albert-Birot testifies:
"Don't you think it would be better if you characterised this drama yourself, otherwise people will say it's cubist? - It's true, let's say supernaturalist drama". I was reluctant because I saw in it either a possible link with the naturalist school, which was unfortunate, or an evocation of the supernatural, which was false. Apollinaire thought for two seconds: "So let's put it this way surreal".
In a preface to the original edition published by SIC in 1918, Apollinaire sketches out a definition of the term:
To characterise my drama I have used a neologism that I will be forgiven for rarely using, and I have coined the adjective surreal, which does not at all mean symbolic, as has been assumed by M. Victor Basch, in his soap opera dramaticbut it defines quite well a tendency in art which, if it is no more new than anything else under the sun, is also a tendency in art. the sun has at least never been used to formulate any credo, any statement artistic and literary. [...] in order to attempt, if not a renovation of the theatre, at least a personal effort, I thought it necessary to return to nature itself, but without imitating it in the manner of photographers. When man wanted to imitate walking, he created the wheel, which doesn't look like a leg. In doing so, he created surrealism without realising it.
In any case, it is under this title of "surreal drama"The premiere on 24 June 1917 at the Renée Maubel theatre, directed by Albert-Birot, was a major event for what was to become the Surrealist group. Louis Aragon recounted an anecdote which, although probably apocryphal, would remain one of the founding myths of the movement: as the audience, half enthusiastic and half scandalised, grew hotter, Jacques Vaché, accompanied by André Breton, brandished a revolver and threatened to shoot into the crowd (SIC24 June 1917) Geneviève Latour, drawing on Georges Auric's memoirs, goes on to detail "[...]. he threatened the room, revolver in hand (or cap pistol), while accusing Apollinaire of "tinkering with romanticism with telegraph wire and not knowing dynamos". (Les Extravagants du théâtre. From the Belle Époque to the phoney war, p. 55-56.) Whether a triumph, a scandal or a debacle, the play was much talked about: some criticised its buffoonery, others interpreted the text as a satire of feminism, some cubists saw the sets as a naïve parody of their pictorial research, others took offence at the poet-soldier's apparent anti-patriotism...
Although a second performance was announced several times, it did not take place until 1919, as part of Madame Aubel's lecture. Only Act I was performed: however, Apollinaire's dream was realised for the first time: as early as 1903, the poet had imagined a scene in which a woman decides to change gender, and her breasts, two helium-filled balloons, take flight... but in 1917, gas was reserved for the army, and the interpreter of Thérèse could only let two balls of fabric escape from her bodice. When the revival of the play was announced, Louise Marion, who once again played the lead role, wrote to Albert-Birot: "[...]. and this time I'll have real balloons I'll do everything I can to make sure one falls into the audience and the other climbs to the ceiling near the chandelier where it can't be dislodged for eight days for lack of workmen and ladders [...]"
On 22 June, she reported to Albert-Birot:
The solemnity took place as best we could in makeshift costumes, and we looked like the inmates of a travelling circus, more or less like the theatre of the Gingerbread Fair: you can see that at the Odéon.
Philippe Soupault (who acted as prompter at the premiere) is nevertheless enthusiastic:
We can't remember the plays we saw at the Champs-Elysées or the Théâtre du Châtelet, but we can't forget the laughter that shook us, twenty years ago and again yesterday, at performances of Mamelles de Tirésias.
We don't care about anything: back there, in the street we've just left, we thought, we listened. Here we hear nothing: we laugh so heartily. Sometimes we catch a glimpse of Guillaume Apollinaire's unforgettable smile.
(Literature5 July 1919)
This was not the case with Léautaud, who raged against Madame Aurel's lecture, to which he poured scorn: "Poor Apollinaire! A dear friend whom I will always miss! He was a charming man, an exquisite comrade, a delightful mind, a true poet, sensitive and subtle. [...] When I heard the definition quoted above, I remembered how many times we laughed together about that good Mme Aurel" (Mercury, 16 August 1919)
One copy is held by the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris (Pierre Marcel Adéma collection).
- Beauchamp, Hélène. " Les Mamelles de Tirésias by Guillaume Apollinaire. A scandal in wartime", Fabula / ConferencesTheatre and scandal (I) (dir. François Lecercle, Clotilde Thouret)
- Read, Peter. "The Fate of Les Mamelles de Tirésias. Apollinaire and Les Mamelles de TirésiasPresses universitaires de Rennes, 2000
- Robert, Sophie. "24 June 1917: Les Mammelles de Tirésias". The Gallica Blog, uploaded 23 June 2017.
