Externalize the Intimacy or the Permanent Crisis of the Theater. Roland Dubillard’s "House of Bones": “Polyphonic Monodrama”?

Abstract

Rolland Dubillard’s House of Bones is openly situated in the wake of “rhapsodic dramaturgy” which challenges the constraints of the canonical form that Szondi has defined as “absolute drama”. Not being based on a great conflict, the construction of the work does not respect the dynamics of the action (incidentally, non-existent), while focusing on the confrontation of a protagonist with oneself. Thus, the intersubjective, on which a traditional play is built, gives way to the extrasubjective which manifests itself, in this case, through a polyphonic monodrama. In fact, by studying Dubillard’s text, we see that the French author renounces the old paradigm in order to explore better the interiority of the main character. He leads a solitary life, surrounded by his many servants who seem to be the pale reflections of his torn soul. Freeing himself from the monologue, the writer conceives in this way a monodrama with several voices. This process does not, however, signify the crisis of the genre, because it constitutes one of the solutions allowing its evolution.