Jean-Louis BARRAULT (1910-1994). 6 L.A.S. (mostly "Jean-Louis" or "JLB"), [1936]-1954, to Félix Labisse; 12 pages in-4 (1st page slightly wet). Beautiful correspondence to painter and set designer Félix Labisse (1905-1982). [Labisse designed the set and costumes for Jean-Louis Barrault's first show, Autour d'une mère, based on Faulkner's Tandis que j'agonise, at L'Atelier in June 1935]. [1936]. He is going to "shoot - all summer long - 3 films no doubt"; as for the theater, he wants to "organize for next October a young center for in-depth study of the actor's art. At the end of October, I'm going to stage a superb tragedy by Cervantes [Numance], which will be a step forward [...] This year, I've realized that I'm a tragedian, and that it's tragedy above all that fascinates me, because it's the most... acting form". He wants to find "a year-round venue", perhaps "les Ursulines"... Needing to act, he may accept a proposal from Jouvet. He will sponsor Numance with the money from his films. "This year I've received a lot of "life" at my expense: it's the best and I feel I'll be happy with it"... August 4, 1944, following a L.A.S. from Madeleine Renaud. They are both on vacation in Brittany, with Madeleine Renaud's family, including her son Jean-Pierre Granval; Madeleine talks about supplies, the advance of the armies, and the hoped-for Victory... Barrault adopts a style tinged with surrealist humor, to evoke the pond: "a strange eye, all slimy like the sex of a woman in heat; where the clouds of my imagination are reflected [...] All around it is hairy with magnificent beech trees smelling of humus and mushrooms. In this unctuous, pungent liquor, glistening fish glide and sink - a seminal liquid drips from your head, moistens your eyes and slides down your nose, but no gray matter. In other words, you enjoy but don't work"... On August 12, 1945, he received the "lightning news" [death of Robert Desnos] and that of the death of his old maternal grandfather: "All of a sudden, I lost the old trunk of our little family, and my chosen brother. Suddenly it was as if someone were holding me by the jacket; I had no desire for anything but what had been. [...] It seemed to me that I could no longer drink a glass of wine, watch a pipe being smoked, listen to a record, discover a book on the quayside, burst out laughing, sing a drinking song or a sailor's song, feel the lyrical state of generosity, the gift of self, the gift to others, the juvenile walks with knees forward, the great outbursts, the cats, everything that is "love of living" without at the same time feeling Robert's presence close to me. [...] I had two true friends, Robert and you, and it was one of them who informed me of the other's death"... July 7, 1949, recalling the summer deaths that had occurred around them since 1942, including those of Granval (Madeleine Renaud's first husband), Robert Desnos, Paul Valéry, and now the death of Madeleine's mother, which he recounts with tender emotion: "She died as a little bird that goes 'couic'", as in The Seagull... - August 16, 1949, recalling his vacation at Vasouy near Honfleur. He returns to Paris on September 3: "I'm back at the Chantiers Marigny, the Bossu [by P. Féval] is under way, along with Elisabeth [d'Angleterre by F. Bruckner], George Dandin and the Rape of Lucretia [by Obey]", and he needs Labisse for "the planting and the machinery" of the Bossu, for which rehearsals start on September 6... Clos Normand [Vasouy] August 31, 1954. "I want to reopen the "Petit Marigny" to celebrate my 20 years of theatrical production activity", by remounting Tandis que j'agonise. He will be staging Aeschylus' Oreste adapted by Obey: "Boulez will help me with the musical sound effects, and I'm counting on you and Maiène [Marie-Hélène Dasté] for all the plastic work"... 2 rare programs from his debut are enclosed: - Autour d'une mère at Théâtre Montmartre (salle de l'Atelier), June 4-7, 1935; - Numance de Cervantes, Nouveau Théâtre Antoine [April 1937].