"Surjouer" avec le feu: "Le Pique nique de Claretta" et la mise en scène de Vitez

This article focuses on the encounter between R. Kalisky and A. Vitez, with specific emphasis on the production of Le Pique-nique de Claretta in 1974. It also examines the reasons of their mutual discovery based on an interest in going beyond the precepts of Brechtian theatre and their common search for a renewal of dramatic forms. Thanks to a large variety of documents (correspondence, unpublished drafts, working papers, newspapers reviews), this work analyses from a dramaturgic point of view the differences between Kalisky’s text and the production of the play. Vitez’s mise-en-scène of Le Pique-nique reveals the Belgian author’s position to evince a wider degree of freedom from contemporary ideological and cultural schemata than might be indicated in the written text. Kalisky aims at a new theatrical model that avoids simplistic, clear-cut structures, and boldly conceives of his theatrical model as a weapon against new forms of Fascism.