Notes
Aristote, La Poétique, Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 1999, 37.
M. Bradbury, & J. McFarlane, ed., Modernism: a Guide to European Literature 1890-1930, Londres : Penguin, (1976) 1991.
La compagnie du Gate Theatre est fondée en 1928 par Micheál MacLiammóir et Hilton Edwards. Les deux hommes recrutent essentiellement les acteurs engagés dans la Dublin Drama League, fondée en 1918 par Lennox Robinson. Celle-ci visait à introduire, seulement les soirs de relâche de l’Abbey et dans sa petite salle annexe, le Peacock Theatre, des pièces de l’avant-garde dramatique européenne. C’est justement le projet de la nouvelle compagnie qui prend donc sa relève.
La troisième pièce de Denis Johnston n’a jamais été traduite en français. Je propose ici cette traduction du titre original A Bride for the Unicorn. Le terme bride désigne normalement « la mariée », le jour de ses noces. Dans la pièce, le personnage féminin qui s’unit au protagoniste disparaît le soir même et ce dernier part à sa recherche. Toute l’intrigue tend vers leurs retrouvailles. La « mariée » est toujours différée comme si elle demeurait une « promise », d’où la traduction choisie.
« It was the kind of play for which there was no prototype that I was aware of at the time, and it was trying to do something that I still don’t believe is possible on the stage – that is to say, to deal with an idea that is not already in the mind of the audience. », cité par G. Barnett, Denis Johnston, Boston : Twayne Publishers, 1978, 59.
“an imaginary adventure in play form”, Denis Johnston, A Bride for the Unicorn, in Storm Song and A Bride for the Unicorn, Londres : Jonathan Cape, 1935, 156.
“I must find her. I can’t live without her”, (idem, 213).
“Oh, I know that I am nobody now, but some day I shall fling a great shadow across the earth and then you will see me as I am“, (id., 217).
Aristote, La Poétique, op. cit., 38.
R. Abirached, La Crise du personnage dans le théâtre contemporain, Mesnil-sur-l’Estrée : Gallimard, 1978, 2006.
“an aery timeless region”, D. Johnston, id., 164.
“the vaporous realm of the earth”, A. Strindberg, A Dream Play, in Plays: Two: The Dance of Death, A Dream Play, The Stronger [1901], London : Methuen, 2000, 183.
“She” et “He”, D. Johnston, id., 162.
“the unusual faculty of being all times at once”, (id., 165).
J. W. Dunne, An Experiment with Time (1927), cité par H. Ferrar, Denis Johnston’s Irish Theatre, 62-64.
“I am the Observer – the Ultimate Observer”, D. Johnston, id., 166.
“One consciousness rules over them all, that of the dreamer. For him there are no secrets, no illogicalities, no scruples, no laws”. A. Strindberg, A Dream Play, op. cit., 175.
“THE MINUTES : Tick tock. Tick tock. We run. We run. The Minutes run.” D. Johnston, id., 257.
“Stop! Stop thief! I am robbed – robbed! Stop thief!”, (id., 258).
“SHADOW : you willed your shadow to grow tall until it lay across the earth. And now behold me as I stride in grisly majesty across the hills behind you. Why do you fly from me? I am the Fear of Death”, (id., 256).
“A GENTLEMAN IN BLACK : I am a Gentleman in Black”, (id., 254).
“THE DOUBTS : We are Doubts”, (id., 255).
“Pandora’s Box”, (id., 247).
P. Szondi, Théorie du drame moderne [1965], Francfort-sur-le-Main : Circé, 2006, 40.
“Virginal Palace”, D. Johnston, id., 169.
“In this gloomy classroom, at work upon my books. I am alone. Prepare for Life, the books say. What is that I wonder? It is something outside the window”, (id., 169).
“burying him in a shower of books”, (id., 183).
Les études philosophiques et psychanalytiques sur l’identité distinguent l’identité innée, personnelle, et l’identité sociale, que l’on se construit en société. Clément Rosset préfère y voir un « moi pré-identitaire » antérieur à la reconnaissance sociale qui nous donne une identité « réelle », attestée par le témoignage de notre entourage et par des papiers qui permettent de nous identifier. C. Rosset, Loin de moi [1999] Paris : Les Éditions de Minuit, 2007.
“My beloved spake and said unto me / Rise up my love, my fair one / And come away / For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. / The flowers appear upon the earth…”, D. Johnston, id., 169.
“Life is a voice in the street”, (id., 169).
“She gave him her love, but he found himself the richer thereby only in responsibilities. […] Since bound together by a yellow band, they feed upon each other’s hearts and minds, like captive eagles…”, (id., 242-243).
“Together we seek the Golden Fleece”, (id., 164). Dans la mythologie grecque, Jason dut partir en quête de la toison d’or d’un bélier divin pour libérer son pays d’une malédiction. Les Argonautes sont les princes et héros grecs qui l’auraient accompagné en Colchide à bord du vaisseau Argo.
“Bear him as the Paladins bore Charlemagne”, (id., 299).
“I’m sorry but nobody leaves here until the bills are paid”, (id., 206).
“In Hercules Ltd. you are fortunate in having a concern based on pure finance unaffected by the conditions of the industrial world. Hercules Ltd. are happy to say that they make nothing”, (id., 230).
“The High Gestes of Hercules”, (id., 224).
“Money! I hate money! But if only I had a bicycle!”, (id., 216).
“EGBERT: […] surely there is somebody else that might please you, After all, there are other women. […] (He goes across to the piano and seats himself) You couldn’t have gone through all those years without some little foolishness? (He starts very softly some old dance tune) There were dances – You were young. / JOHN: Why trouble me with memories, What if there were? That is nothing to me now”, (id., 217-218).
B. Hobson, ed., The Gate Theatre – Dublin, Dublin: The Gate Theatre, 1934, 60. Ce livre est consultable à la bibliothèque du University College de Dublin. La photo originale est conservée dans les archives de Trinity College, Dublin (TCD/MS/10066/299/696). Micheal et Rory Johnston, fils de Denis Johnston ayant hérité des droits d’auteur, m’ont autorisée à utiliser toute citation ou photo de l’œuvre de leur père dans le cadre de ma recherche.
Ibid. La photo originale est conservée dans les archives de Trinity College, Dublin (TCD/MS/10066/299/699).
“Theatre should be theatrical. It should be a practical expression of the experiences and emotions of the people. […] it should be in a position to exploit its third dimension at the expense of the Cinema. The Cinema has only got two.” D. Johnston, “Public Opinion : A National Morality Play”, in The Bell, Dublin, March 1942, 89.
“Nothing could rob me of my love but Death, but if my love, herself, be Death, oh terrors, where are you now?” D. Johnston, A Bride for the Unicorn, op. cit., 298.
“Good comrades, heap my marriage bed under the hill, where I shall lie with her forever, out of destruction’s reach”, (idem).
“To-night we play this lady’s composition…“, (id., 164).
“plotting out the affairs of mortals upon her piano” (id., 164).
“This play begins with music – slow music in chords of modern timbre that are intimately connected with the plot – cold wintry music. The theatre darkens, and as the orchestra draws to its climax, the theme is taken up by an unseen player at a piano. […] Her playing rises to a series of chords suggestive of the chiming of the hours, and here they are taken up as if in answer by another piano…”, (id., 161, c’est moi qui souligne).
“faintly through the dialogue”, (id., 189).
“The snow has stopped. It is growing lighter”, (id., 186).
Ibid., 299.
“A contemporary Argosy in play form intended for music”. D. Johnston, Dramatic Works, Vol. 2, Dublin : Colin Smythe Ltd, 1979, 11.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen have you got your lines? (He distributes pieces of paper)”, (id., 164).
“Let me tell you the story. […] All life is frozen […] Until she picks up her flower and comes down the cold, white street”, (id., 165).
“If we could answer Egbert’s question […] there would be no purpose in this play at all for that is just what it is all about. What is the time?”, (idem).
“we will create man in our own image and endow him with the mystery of time and the seasons”, (id., 166).
“The magic of happiness is that it must have beginning and ending. Why should we love for ever? Where is the joy of wine, unless in the drinking?” (id., 222).
“JOHN: […] Why must all things end so soon? / EGBERT: Why must love end? Didn’t a girl ask you that once, and didn’t you give her an answer? Well the answer is the same? / JOHN: ‘Not for ever,’ I told her, ‘that would not be love. The magic of happiness is that it has beginning and ending.’ / EGBERT: When we are born we sign a bond with Time that some day we must honour” (id., 277-278).
Anne Ubersfeld, Lire le Théâtre III – Le Dialogue de théâtre, Paris : Belin, 1996, 119.
“Oh save us, Phœbus, from the fear of Endings!”, D. Johnston, A Bride for the Unicorn, op. cit., 300.
Keir Elam, The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama [1980], Londres, New York : Routledge, 2005, 16.
J.-P. Sarrazac, L’Avenir du drame [1981], Saulxures : Circé, 1999.
J.-P. Sarrazac et al., Lexique du drame moderne et contemporain, Belval : Circé, 2005, 183.
« it is necessary to correct a widespread impression, put about by unscrupulous enemies, that I died of some unspecified disease in the summer of 1933, and have never written since. », D. Johnston, Dramatic Works, Vol. 2, 7.
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