Abstract
‘The need for satire is greatest when the political situation is most difficult’, noted Sartre in 19551 just prior to the first performance of Nekrassov, his openly satirical play directed against the French anti-communist press.2 Sartre could have been under no illusions that his dramatic denunciation of the lies and deceptions disseminated by the right-wing press during the Cold War period would be well received. Press reaction was almost universally hostile. Only L’Humanité and Les Lettres françaises enthusiastically and uncritically endorsed Sartre’s political thesis and theatrical production. The pro-communist bias of the play inevitably alienated the majority of non-communist French drama critics, and effectively ensured that Nekrassov was peremptorily dismissed and then conveniently forgotten.
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Notes and References
Henry Magnan, ‘Avant la création de Nekrassov au Théâtre Antoine, Sartre nous dit…’, Le Monde, 1 June 1955, p. 9.
Nekrassov, Sartre’s ninth play, was performed for the first time at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris on 8 June 1955, and ran for 60 performances. It was subsequently produced in 1968 at the Théâtre de Strasbourg, and again in 1978 at the Théâtre de l’Est in Paris. The first performance of the play in English was in 1957 at the Unity Theatre in London. The text of the play was originally published in extracts in Les Temps Modernes, nos 114–15 (June–July 1955), pp. 2017–71; no. 116 (August 1955), pp. 85–125; no. 117 (September 1955), pp. 277–323 and an edition was published by Gallimard in 1956. An additional scene, cut from the original production and entitled ‘Le Bal des Futurs Fusillés’, was published in Les Lettres françaises, 16–23 June 1955, and subsequently reprinted in ES, pp. 714–19. An English translation by Sylvia and George Leeson was published by Hamish Hamilton in 1957.
Anon., ‘Explosions au Théâtre Antoine à propos de la pièce “crypto” de Jean-Paul Sartre’, Le Figaro, 10 May 1955, p. 10.
See: (i) Jean-Jacques Gautier, ‘Au Théâtre Antoine Nekrassov de Jean-Paul Sartre’, Le Figaro, 13 June 1955, p. 12; (ii) Thierry Maulnier, ‘L’Opium du peuple’, Le Figaro, 4 July 1955, p. 1.
Robert Kemp, ‘Nekrassov au Théâtre Antoine’, Le Monde, 14 June 1955, p. 11.
Ibid.
It was alleged in right-wing circles that Sartre had expressly written Nekrassov in order to atone for the ‘anti-communist’ thesis of Les Mains sales, performed for the first time on 2 April 1948. The extent of communist hostility to Les Mains sales can be gauged from the following reaction to the play cited by Simone de Beauvoir in La Force des choses (Gallimard, 1963), p. 168: ‘For thirty pieces of silver and a mess of American potage, M. J.-P. Sartre has sold his last remaining vestiges of honour and probity’.
Guy Leclerc, ‘Au Théâtre Antoine: Nekrassov de Jean-Paul Sartre’, L’Humanité, 13 June 1955, p. 2.
Pierre Daix, ‘Nekrassov ou le défi de la critique au public’, Les Lettres françaises, 23 June 1955, p. 2.
(i) Claude-Henry Leconte, ‘La dure bataille de Nekrassov laisse intact le moral de la troupe’, Combat, 2 June 1955, p. 2; (ii) Serge Montigny, ‘A la veille de la première de Nekrassov: Jean-Paul Sartre’, Combat, 7 June 1955, pp. 1–2.
Anon., ‘Lecture de Nekrassov’, Combat, 13 July 1955, p. 2.
Thierry Maulnier, ‘Nekrassov au Théâtre Antoine’, Combat, 13 June 1955, p. 2.
André Alter, ‘Nekrassov: Un pétard mouillé de Jean-Paul Sartre’, Témoignage chrétien, 24 June 1955. It is worth recording that Gabriel Marcel, while highlighting the ‘dangerous’ political implications of Nekrassov, judged it to be a superior theatrical experience to Le Diable et le bon dieu (‘Nekrassov par Jean-Paul Sartre’, Les Nouvelles littéraires, 16 June 1955). Marcel’s preference for Nekrassov can doubtless be explained as the product of Catholic hostility to the ‘moral’ thesis of Le Diable et le bon dieu.
Roland Barthes, ‘Nekrassov juge de sa critique’, Théâtre populaire, no. 14 (July–August 1955).
See, for example: (a) Richard Findlater, ‘First-Class Theatre — Third-Class Politics’, Tribune, 13 January 1956, p. 8; (b) Ted Gomm, ‘A Socialist at the Theatre’, Socialist Leader, vol. 44, no. 40 (5 October 1956), p. 2; (c) William Salter, ‘Murrow, Thomas, Sartre’, The New Statesman and Nation, 1 September 1956, pp. 241–2; (d) T. C. Worsley, ‘The Arts and Entertainment: A Political Farce’, The New Statesman and Nation, 14 January 1956, pp. 40–1.
Ossia Trilling, ‘Nekrassov by Jean-Paul Sartre’, London Magazine, vol. 4, no 7 (1957), pp. 75–9.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Communistes ont peur de la révolution (Editions John Didier, 1969).
See (a) Robert Abirached, ‘Jean-Paul Sartre: Nekrassov, par le Théâtre National de Strasbourg’, La Nouvelle Revue Française, 33 (1969), pp. 313–14; (b) Jean Besse, ‘Nekrassov réhabilité’, Les Lettres françaises, November–December 1968, pp. 26–7; (c) B. Poiret-Delpech, ‘Nekrassov de Jean-Paul Sartre’, Le Monde, 13 November 1968, p. 25.
See (a) Jean-Marie Borzeix, ‘La Bataille de Nekrassov n’aura pas lieu, hélas!’, Les Nouvelles Littéraires, 9 February 1978, p. 3; (b) Gilles Sandier, ‘La reprise de Nekrassov’, La Quinzaine littéraire, 16 March 1978, p. 21; (c) Philippe Sénart, ‘Nekrassov (Théâtre de l’Est parisien)’, Revue des deux Mondes, April–June 1978, pp. 188–90; (d) Bruno Villien, ‘Nekrassov, vingt ans après’, Le Nouvel observateur, 27 February–5 March 1978, pp. 86–7.
‘Entretien avec Kenneth Tynan’, in TDS, pp. 158–9.
For an excellent discussion of the differences between Sartrean and Brechtian theatre, see (i) J.-P Sartre, ‘Théâtre épique et théâtre dramatique’, TDS, pp. 104–51: (ii) ‘Les Séquestrés d’Altona nous concernent tous’, interview with Bernard Dort, Théâtre populaire, no 36, 1959, reprinted in TDS, pp. 299–314.
Guy Leclerc, ‘“En dénonçant dans ma nouvelle pièce les procédés de la presse anticommuniste, je veux apporter une contribution d’écrivain à la lutte pour la paix” nous déclare Jean-Paul Sartre’, L’Humanité, 8 June 1955, p. 2.
See ibid.
Ibid.
For an account of Sartre’s transitional status as a writer in postwar France, see M. Scriven, Sartre’s Existential Biographies (London: Macmillan, 1984).
Leclerc, ‘En dénonçant dans ma nouvelle pièce…’.
‘Tableau inédit de Nekrassov: le Bal des Futurs Fusillés’, Les Lettres françaises, 16–23 June 1955. In this scene, Jean-Jacques Gautier is cited by name, Champenois bears a marked resemblance to Georges Airman, and Cocardeau to André Malraux.
Jean-Paul Sartre, L’Imaginaire (Gallimard, 1940), p. 371.
Ibid.
Thierry Maulnier, ‘L’Opium du peuple’, Le Figaro, 4 July 1955, p. 1.
Thierry Maulnier, ‘Nékroutchov?’, Le Figaro, 18 July 1956, p. 2.
Gabriel Marcel, ‘Nekrassov par Jean-Paul Sartre’, Les Nouvelles Littéraires, 16 June 1955, p. 6.
J.-F Rolland, ‘Jean-Paul Sartre vous parle de Nekrassov: La pièce vise les institutions et non des individus’, L’Humanité, 19 June 1955.
ES, p. 283.
Annie Cohen-Solal, Sartre (Gallimard, 1985), p. 461.
Henry Magnan, ‘Avant la création de Nekrassov au Théâtre Antoine, Sartre nous dit…’, Le Monde, 1 June 1955, p. 9.
‘Entretien avec Kenneth Tynan’, in TDS, p. 159.
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© 1999 Michael Scriven
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Scriven, M. (1999). Myth versus Satire: The Dramatised Politics of Sartre’s Nekrassov. In: Jean-Paul Sartre. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27564-9_7
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