Suzanne Bing - The "Copiaus" and The Compagnie Des Quinze

The "Copiaus" and The Compagnie Des Quinze

Abruptly at the end of the 1924 season, Copeau disbanded his theater company and, with those actors who were willing and some of the students from the school, moved to Burgundy. Thus began a fascinating saga in the countryside that was to last some five years. The motley group of some thirty-five students and actors first settled in Morteuil and then finally in Pernand-Vergelesse, a village not far from Beaune, deep in the wine-producing area of Burgundy. With the school abandoned because of a lack of funds in 1925, this odd mixture of actors and students, along with Copeau's nephew, Michel Saint-Denis, slowly formed themselves into a troupe that relied on the development of characters of their creation they developed through improvisation and mask work. The concept of a New Comedy that Copeau had developed much earlier during the war years came to fruition here with Bing, Maiène, St-Denis and Jean Dasté, who would soon become Copeau's son-in-law (he married Maiène). The masked characters, reminiscent of the commedia dell'arte, became part of their repertoire as they played in pieces written expressly for them by Copeau or that resulted from their improvisations. As they traveled from village to village putting on their plays in town squares, led by actors in costume and carrying banners, accompanied by drums and music, Burgundians began calling them the "Copiaus". The name soon marked them as progeny of Copeau's concept of the theater—a theater reduced to its essence.

Bing's influence here is not difficult to discern. Her interest in improvisation and masks grew into a devotion both to the development of her former students, Maiène, Jean Dasté, Etienne Decroux, Jean Dorcy, and to the continuation of the concepts of Copeau, the man they all called "patron." As the transition from student actor to professional took place under Bing's aegis, they developed new techniques based on their improvisations and mask work. The result was that the students of the École du Vieux-Colombier became themselves teachers and professional actors devoted to a well-honed craft.

In 1929 this small group left Burgundy for Paris to establish the Compagnie des Quinze, under the direction of Michel Saint-Denis. Their first production, Noé, written for the company by André Obey, was produced on the stage of the Vieux-Colombier in 1931. All the training of the actor's instruments—body and voice—along with the highly developed use of the mask were put on display in this work in which most of the actors played masked animal characters.