Le « théâtre d’évasion » de Gaston Baty, ou comment dépasser la sécularité

Abstract

THE “ESCAPE THEATRE” OF GASTON BATY OR HOW TO OVERCOME SECULARITY In this article, we study the works of French playwrights from the 1920s and 1930s who adhere to Gaston Baty’s theatrical aesthetics, without explicitly declaring themselves as believers. While remaining wary of dogmas symbolized by the Church, writers such as Henri-René Lenormand, Simon Gantillon and Jean-Victor Pellerin note the loss of transcendence that inevitably leads “modern man” to his downfall. The rejection of the teaching of institutionalized religion does not mean a total disappearance of the sacred in their texts. In the face of demonic civilization, dramatic authors make a somewhat pessimistic diagnosis in search of remedies likely to fill the “ontological vacuum.” Undoubtedly, according to these writers, drama is the place where expectations and religious disappointments that agitate this tormented generation of the interwar period crystallize.