Du New York de Copeau au Tokyo de Cocteau. Impromptus moliéresques des auteurs modernistes

The Impromptu de Versailles set an important precedent in the history of theatre. Molière demonstrated that a playwright could go on stage and showcase his talent as an actor by playing himself, all while directing his actors, responding to the accusations of his worst critic, Edmé Boursault, and defending his vision of authentic representations in plays. About three centuries later, this prospect attracted several 20th-century French playwrights who rewrote his impromptu for their theatre company and their times: Jacques Copeau, Jean Giraudoux, Albert Camus, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Anouilh, and Jean Cocteau. Our goal in this article is twofold. First, we want to map these impromptus chronologically to understand how these playwrights rewrote Molière’s impromptu and why they chose it as an hypotext. Did they merely employ it as an apt means to introduce their directorial take on the Molière’s comedy they were staging as the main play on a particular night? Or did they take this chance to address their own Boursaults? And in that case, how did they use this theatrical form as a weapon against their critics? Secondly, we would like to point out the instances where the memory of Molière emerges from these impromptus as a meaningful legacy that we should not get rid of, not even in modern times.