SOURCE: Guérin, Jeanyves. “Is There Something Rotten in the State of French Theater?” In Myths and Realities of Contemporary French Theater: Comparative Views, edited by Patricia M. Hopkins and Wendell A. Aycock, pp. 13-35. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech Press, 1984.

In the following essay, Guérin traces the development of French theater from the 1930s to the 1960s, noting that the non-establishment authors of the 1960s are now part of the established French literary scene and as such are focusing on experimentation that is based in realism and the use of traditional imagery.

During the nineteenth century, the French theater went through a long period of decline. Musset, Labiche, and later Giraudoux are like giant oaks called upon to hide a stunted forest. Strindberg, Ibsen, Chekhov, Pirandello and others had no French counterparts of their stature. But renewal came from the professionals in the theater. Louis Becq de...