The Impromptu in Question: From Molière to Giraudoux and Ionesco

Abstract

The starting point of this research is a line from Eugène Ionesco’s play The Alma Impromptu: “theatre, of course, changes, for the theatre is life. It’s changing like life”. The author of this article aims to verify the viability of this assertion by analysing the following plays: Molière’s The Versailles Impromptu, Giraudoux’s The Paris Impromptu, and Ionesco’s The Alma Impromptu. This constitutes an investigation on some grounding points of the topic. The critical meta-text is focused on aspects such as the status of the playwright, the purpose of theatre, the fabrication of the dramatic text, the relation author/text/comedian/public and the status of theatre as a social phenomenon rooted in the lifeline of collective existence. However, the meta-text is constantly scrambled by a certain form of auto-referential writing unveiling its own mechanisms, the creative process being the play on its own. Molière puts himself on stage while writing his play, as author, director and comedian, Giraudoux shows himself through his character Jouvet, Ionesco places himself on stage while writing his play, being disrupted by three characters, “Ph.Ds in theatrology” who write a play themselves, encasings present in Molière and Giraudoux’s works as well. Consequently, the reflection on dramatic arts shows, in its essence, the same poetics and/or poïetics, the mirroring games favouring structural and thematic duplications, and depicts the evolution of technical devices and creative specificity shared with an audience more and more discerning.