Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries in France, we find an evolution of taste in the literary field: Realism was slowly declining, giving way with a certain speed to Symbolism. On the stage, through the Théâtre d’Art and at the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre, there was a sort of popularization of Symbolist thought and the most interesting plays by contemporary playwrights. But Symbolism managed to come to the fore thanks to a completely independent group, free from economic and institutional bonds, that took as its example what had been the Théâtre d’Art with Paul Fort in 1890, and later in 1893, the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre directed by Aurelien Lugné-Poe, when European plays with a strong Symboplist bent were produced in France. Both Paul Fort, a very young poet in 1890, and Aurelien Lugné-Poe, who had behind him a career at the Théâtre Libre and the Théâtre d’Art, strongly stimulated the Parisian public. Lugné-Poe continued to stage Symbolist works and presented the latest European playwrights, bringing new content to set design and direction: no more realistic elements, but a setting provided by canvas backdrops: works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Vuillard, and Bonnard, for example, to cite just a few. What is more, Lugné-Poe discovered the talent of a new author, the first major Symbolist playwright in the French language: Maurice Maeterlinck. Belgian by birth (Ghent, 1862), from a fairly well-off Flemish family, Maeterlinck studied law first in Belgium and later in Paris, where he cultivated his interest in literature, poetry, and theater. He worked actively and remained in Paris and in France for much of his life. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1911 and received honors from Belgium’s royal family. He died in Nice in 1949. His very first play, Princess Madeleine (1889), produced a certain ferment in public opinion, both in terms of positive reviews – like that of Mirbeau, who considered the play the work of a great personality – and negative criticism, which considered the play an example of plays that were too insubstantial and detached from everyday life. Then came The Interloper and The Blind, both in 1890, but it was his Pelléas et Mélisande (1892) that finally brought French Symbolism great renown. The drama, in five acts, was staged for the first time in 1893, then set to Debussy’s music, and in 1902 the musical version was produced at the Opéra-Comique. The plot features the mature nobleman, Golaud, who takes as his wife a young woman found lost in the forest, the fragile Mélisande. Golaud’s stepbrother, the young Pelléas, falls in requited love with Mélisande, as a delicate feeling grows up between the two that gradually turns into love and passion. The atmosphere of mystery that shrouds the work and the many symbols or metaphorical occurrences that permeate it increased interest in this type of theater: the wedding ring that falls into the fountain, the doves that fly away from a tower, the evanescent shadows and bloodstains that can’t be washed away. The climax comes when Golaud, beset by doubts, unconsciously convinced of the passion of the two young people and eaten away by jealousy, kills his stepbrother Pelléas. And Mélisande dies after giving birth to a baby girl, while her husband vainly questions her about her supposed or real betrayal. Golaud remains tortured by his not knowing, in his vain search for certainty. It is obvious that in the play the perception of the individual person in terms of irrational or mysterious feelings is in the foreground and becomes the possibility of reaching an at times uncertain form of truth, even though these first plays are animated by a certain pessimism in the face of a Fate that is quite close to that of ancient tragedy. Maurice Maeterlinck later seems to take a mainly optimistic stance towards the existence of a common Good: a possible overcoming of pain thanks to the active presence of wisdom in later plays. After 1900 he wrote Lady Vanna (1902), The Blue Bird (1908), The Miracle of Saint Anthony (1904-1920), and Princess Isabelle (1935). Of these, the best-known is certainly The Blue Bird, a fairy tale that takes the form of an allegory on the search for happiness. The Blue Bird, a comedy in five acts and ten scenes, tells of the fantastic voyage of two children, named Tyltyl and Myltyl, the children of a woodsman, who fall asleep on Christmas night in the cabin where they live, fly to a fantasy land and dream of going in search of the blue bird that represents a talisman of happiness. In this night of dreams, the two children touch upon various symbolic places, like the Land of Memory, where the dead live, the Palace of Night, the Garden of Happiness and Future Land, where the children who are about to or will in future come into the world have their home. The next morning, Tyltyl and Myltyl wake up and discover to their amazement that the bird they searched for in the Christmas night dream now lives right in their poor cabin, the symbol of a modest but honestly lived happiness. The playwright here seems to reach a certain existential serenity and leaves behind his anguished attitude over the forces of darkness, that Fate that in Pelléas et Mélisande held sway. However, he does not neglect the theatrical aspects of the play, which can be found in the minds of the individual characters, which seeks to transport the audience into the evanescent world of shadows and dreams.

(trad. Interpres sas Giussano)