Hervé Guibert et Philippe Mezescaze : Un cataclysme amoureux empreint de théâtralité et de cruauté

Abstract

In his autobiographical work, Deux garçons, Philippe Mezescaze relates his love story with Hervé Guibert—a love conceived during adolescence. During a theater class given in the Cultural Center of La Rochelle, their passion reveals itself to their classmates and professor during a powerful performance of a scene from Camus's Caligula. Their performance is profoundly shocking to the audience, perhaps because it is not a performance, but rather the expression of a feeling that seems socially unacceptable and inappropriate to their ages. Their classmates and the professor realize that they have witnessed a reality, not a mere scene from a play. Applying Antonin Artaud's theory Le Théâtre et son double, this article explores Deux garçons for its profound theatrical dimension, for its illustration of the phenomenon of “voir et être vu”—“seeing and being seen.” These themes are present from the beginning of the love story to its eventual end. Mezescaze's narrative includes references to various plays such as Caligula (Camus), Le Prince de Hombourg (Kleist), and Macbeth (Shakespeare)—references which support the theatrical atmosphere pervading all his writings.