Truth, Lies and Time-Travel: Jean Cocteau in the 'Impromptu' Tradition

Abstract

Heavily influenced by the 'commedia dell'arte', and already in existence by the beginning ofthe seventeenth century, the shore theatrical form known as the 'impromptu', was at first and, as Lise Gauvin reminds us, often still is, no more than a 'divertissement', a curtain raiser with little or no serious content. Molière, with his 'Impromptu de Versailles', transformed the genre by making of his 'comédie des comédiens' a vehicle for both satire of his rivalsand rebuttal oftheir criticisms, while also providing a platform from which to broadcast his own poetics of theatre.