ABSTRACT
In September 1973, following Its productions on the French Revolution, 1789 and 7793, the Théâtre du Soleil under its director Ariane Mnouchkine embarked on a new work about contemporary life in France, entitled L’Age d’Or (The Age of Gold). The passages below are from a series of interviews conducted a year later by Denis Bablet, when the preparatory work on it was still continuing. ARIANE MNOUCHKINE:…after 1793 we had to manage to find the courage to speak of our own time, but actually we weren’t ready. DENIS BABLET: In what way? In every way. In knowing about today’s reality? Certainly. I believe no-one is ready in that area. But above all in improvisation technique, in the theatrical forms which would allow us to treat contemporary reality as we wanted, without it becoming pathetic, caricatural, psychological obviously, a parody, a tract, a placard, etc. ‘Contemporary reality’—it’s an extremely large phrase. What exactly do you understand by it? If you like, you could replace the term ‘contemporary reality’ with presentday struggles-struggles, or for some people non-struggles; and then, and above all, the contradictions at the heart of the people.
