Vilar, Jean

Vilar, Jean (1912–71), French actor, manager, and director, who worked under Dullin at the Atelier for some time before the Second World War, and during the occupation of France by the Germans joined a band of young actors, La Roulette, which toured the provinces. Back in Paris in 1943 he directed Strindberg's The Dance of Death and Molière's Don Juan and made a brief appearance in Synge's The Well of the Saints before taking over the 100-seat Théâtre du Poche. He first came into prominence in 1945 with his production, first at the Vieux-Colombier and later in front of the Abbey of Bec-Hellouin, of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, in which he played Becket. As a result of this he was invited in the summer of 1947 to organize the open-air Avignon Festival, which he ran until his death. Its growing importance established him as the leading director of the French theatre, a position that was confirmed in 1951 when he became head of the Théâtre National Populaire at the Palais de Chaillot. His productions, vast in scope and bold in conception as the great stage demanded, aroused both enthusiasm and controversy, and contributed to the simplification and deromanticizing of scenery and to the increased attention paid to the quality of lighting and costume. Vilar, an excellent actor as well as an inspired director, appeared in many of his own productions, among them the title-roles in Macbeth and Richard II, Molière's Don Juan, and Pirandello's Enrico IV; he also played Harpagon in Molière's L'Avare and the Gangster in Brecht's Arturo Ui, and in 1951 was seen as Heinrich in Sartre's Le Diable et le bon Dieu. In the same year he played Sophocles' Oedipus for the Renaud—Barrault company. Among the classics he revived for the TNP were Lesage's Turcaret and Hugo's Ruy Blas and Marie-Tudor. He also introduced his audiences to Goldoni's I rusteghi, Büchner's Dantons Tod, Chekhov's Platonov, and Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. A spare, ascetic-looking man, Vilar could on stage appear amazingly handsome, and his voice had great sonority and emotional overtones. In 1963 he resigned from the TNP in protest against the inadequate support given to it by the French Government and engaged in freelance activities until his death.