Roger Planchon, director and playwright, and the theatre populaire movement, 1957 to 1972

Abstract

In the 1950's and the 1960's in France there was a movement to bring theatre and culture to working class people. Roger Planchon started his work as a part of this movement. He founded his troupe in Lyons in the early fifties, distinguishing himself not only by the vitality and originality of his productions, but also by his insistence on creating a permanent fixed provincial theatre. In 1957, his company took over the municipal theatre of Villeurbanne, a working class suburb of Lyons. They made every effort to acquaint the local population with their theatre by creating contacts with various associations. Gradually they built up a considerable following.

Planchon's work was from the first strongly Brechtian in orientation. He brought out the historical significance of both classical and modern plays, presenting them from a Marxist stand point. Eventually his work earned him widespread recognition as a leading contemporary director. In 1962 he wrote his first play, La Remise, a portrait of his peasant ancestors in the Ardeche. Planchon has tended over the years to write plays and to put on productions which are less and less interpretative, which ask questions but provide no answers.

After the events of May 1968, Planchon and many other directors of theatres populaires admitted that only a minute fraction of their new public was made up of working class people; their methods had failed. In 1972 the government made Planchon's theatre in Villeurbanne the new Theatres National Populaire, and appointed him and his young colleague Patrice Chereau as the artistic directors. Planchon's TNP has made a policy of touring French cities. Using the contacts already established by each local theatre group, it had touched a vast and truly national audience. It is very doubtful, however, that it will ever reach a really popular public.