André Antoine

French actor, director, and theater innovator. Born in Limoges, he grew up in an ordinary family of a minor civil servant. He served in the military and later worked for a gas company in Paris, but his passion for theater, which he had felt since early on, was unstoppable, and in 1887 he opened the "Free Theater" with fellow amateur enthusiasts, playing a pioneering role in the modern theater movement in Europe. Inspired by Emile Zola's view of theater, he directed not only his own country's naturalistic plays, but also those of Ibsen and Tolstoy, and other artists. He rejected the conventions of traditional theater, demanding extremely accurate everydayness in the sets and acting, and pursued truth in theater. His view of directing, which creates an environment on the stage where actors can live, had a great influence on later realist theater. In 1897, he presided over the Antoine Theater, and in 1906, he became the director of the Odeon National Theater, but he was not successful, so he gradually retired from actual activities, and in his later years he made a name for himself as a theater critic.

[Shinkichi Kato]

"Saito Kazuhiro, The Demon of the Stage: Antoine - The History of the French Free Theater" (1962, Waseda University Press)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランスの俳優、演出家、演劇改新者。リモージュに生まれ、小官吏の平凡な家で育つ。軍隊生活を送り、のちにパリのガス会社に勤めたが、早くから抱いていた演劇への情熱は絶ちがたく、1887年にアマチュアの同好の仲間とともに「自由劇場」を開き、ヨーロッパの近代劇運動の先駆的な役割を果たした。エミール・ゾラの演劇観に触発され、自国の自然主義的戯曲のみならず、イプセン、トルストイなどの戯曲を演出し、従来の演劇の約束事を排して、装置と演技にきわめて正確な日常性を要求し、演劇における真実性を追求した。舞台に俳優が生活する環境をつくる演出観は後のリアリズム演劇に大きな影響を与えた。1897年にアントアーヌ劇場を主宰し、1906年に国立オデオン座の座長として活動するが成功に至らず、しだいに実際活動から離れ、晩年は劇評家として名を残した。

［加藤新吉］

『斎藤一寛著『舞台の鬼アントワーヌ――フランス自由劇場の歩み』（1962・早稲田大学出版部）』

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