Jean louis barrault biography of williams
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Source: Micheál Mac Liammóir, Put Money in Thy Purse: The Diary of the Film of Othello (London: Methuen, 1952), p. 212
Production: William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Théâtre Marigny, 11 December 1949
Text:December 11th. Spent morning cutting Earnest, and after lunch Hilton and I experienced keenest disappointment of the year by seeing Jean-Louis Barrault’s Hamlet at the Marigny. ‘Twenty-ish production, all ingenuity and grey tabs and set-pieces pulled and pushed hither and thither to indicate changes of location, and J-L.B. in the same mood, a slick, vivacious Puck of a Prince. H. cheered me up after the shock of the first court scene by muttering in my ear ‘Harlequin, Prince of Denmark’; but general impression one of disillusion too deep for jokes: so fine an artist brilliantly engaged on so palpable a misconception. He treated the ghost as a leprechaun, and the friendship with Horatio as a mild Alma Mater flirtation, and Ophelia as if she were p
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Jean-Louis Barrault Biography, Life, Interesting Facts
French actor, producer-director, and mime artist Jean-Louis Barrault was born on September 8, 1910, in Le Vésinet, Seine-et-Oise [now Yvelines], France. He is credited for his immense contribution for the revival of an innovative, experimental category of contemporary works as well as the traditional classic style of plays in French Theatre brev World War II. The celebrated scen actor grew up studying at the Charles Dullin School of Dramatic Art. He also learnt pantomime while working under legendary French actor and pantomime artist Étienne Decroux.
In his initial days, he studied art before falling in love with theatre. He had to work hard to support his existence. He worked as a bookkeeper and even as a flower salesman before making a name in the show business. In 1931, he made his stage debut by playing the role of a servant in Volpone, a Charles Dullin production. His first independent production wa
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(1910–1994), French actor, director, artistic director, mime artist (student of Étienne Decroux), one of the most important figures twentieth-century French and European theatre. He made his debut in 1931 at the Théâtre de l’Atelier (1931–1935), where in 1935 he appeared for the first time as both actor and director in the mime performance As I Lay Dying, based on the William Faulkner novel. That year he also began working in his own independent theatre, Studio Grenier des Augustines, which attracted members of the surrealist community (including Antonin Artaud, André Breton, Jacque Prévert). Here he appeared in various roles including Hamlet (1937) and directed Hunger, based on the Knut Hamsun novel (1937). Between 1940 and 1946 he performed and directed at the Comédie-Française (including the title role in Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid; directed Jean Racine’s Phèdre in 1942 and Claudel’s Le Soulier de satin Claudela a year later). In 1946, together with his wife Madeleine Re