The real reason why Crommelynck has largely remained an unknown quantity in the English-speaking countries probably lies in a different approach of the theatrical tradition in these countries. Crommelynck's plays are above all farces, and the American and British repertoires contain fewer farces than those of continental Europe where the farcical tradition is almost as old as theatre itself. As a result, although the essentially non-realistic methods of Meyerhold, Brecht, Antoine, and Copeau are also taught in drama schools, the modern actor's training-perhaps more so in America than Britain-isprimarily based on Stanislavski's theories of psychological realism and affective memory. The late Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone was fond of telling the anecdote of an American film star under his direction who constantly wanted to delve deeper into the psychology and motivation of his character, thus incessantly holding back the shooting of the film, whereas the role he had to play was that of a larger-than-life caricature spaghetti western figure with no pretence whatsoever at verisimilitude. As the actor asked him for the umpteenth time “What's my motivation here?”Sergio Leone finally retorted one day: “Your pay check!” The anecdote is probably apocryphal, but it shows quite well the incompleteness of this actor's training. Crommelynck's farces, as Meyerhold established, require the actor to continually jump in and out of character: "To assume somebody else's personality and to rejectit at will: that is the miracle, the manifestation of a quasi-divine power", says a character in Crommelyncks only detective novel, Is Mister Larose the Murderer? (Crommelynck 1981:196). That is how Crommelynck regarded the work of his actors, and that is also why The Magnanimous Cuckold fitted so perfectly into the Meyerhold model. Therefore, just as Meyerhold's theories are invalid outside symbolist drama and farce, Stanislavski's Method proves ineffectual outside stage realism. And it is that difference in the theatrical tradition of the English-speaking world that is responsible for the relative lack of success of Crommelynck there.
The problem for Crommelynck, and indeed for his translator, is that naturalism still prevails on the stage of many theatres. When we read some of the negative reviews that Crommelyncks plays have elicited all along the years, we immediately realize that the criterion of verisimilitude emerged as the absolute value by which to judge the quality of a performance. “In the theatre.” Paul Souday wrote in 1911 in his review of a production of Crommelynck's The Sculptor of Masks,“ psychology ought to matter more than anything else” (Souday 1911: s.p.). Gabriel Marcel was puzzled by Crommelynck's theatre, for he admitted that he had been wondering since 1920“whether the playwright hadn't forsaken realism that year to branch into new paths and explore a new realm of pure invention”(Marcel 1946: s.p.). And that was in 1946! Crommelynck himself confirmed in an interview with a bewildered critic that his“is first and foremost an absolutely subjective theatre: no realism” (Crommelynck, in A.1925: s.p.).
Conversely, the reading of the positive reviews leads us to believe that the most successful productions of Crommelynck's plays were staged in the non-realistic mode. In 1933 in Rome, the most prominent element of the set of The Magnanimous Cuckold was a slide, probably inspired from the Meyerhold production. Moreover, the inscription of the word “CUCKOLD" on some parts of the scenery made any realistic staging impossible. In 1969, the Teatro Nacional Cervantès of Buenos Aires decided to introduce masks in its acclaimed production of the play in order to stress its grotesque aspect.
Theatre has come a long way since 1920. Pirandello, Crommelynck, Meyerhold, Brecht, Beckett, Ionesco, and many others have opened new doors and broken new ground. However, the overwhelming influence of Stanislavski's Method on world theatre in general, and on the American and British theatres in particular, as well as the reluctance of many directors, actors, critics, and indeed theatre-goers to leave the realistic realm, makes the staging of a-psychological works often difficult and confusing. To be effective on the stage in its conjunction of form and content, farce requires a carefully constructed stylised design, such as the Meyerhold and Brecht models offer. Crommelyncks characters are by nature paroxystic. The naturalistic staging approach leads to a little credible or one-noteperformance in which the protagonist is simply a madman The slapstick approach, on the other hand, only makes for an empty superficial spectacle in which pace and rhythm are often confused with frenzy and precipitation. Neither approach has any human relevance in a non-representational theatrical genre.
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