Baty, Gaston

Born May 26, 1885, in Pélussin, Loire Department; died there Oct. 13, 1952. French director and actor.

Baty graduated from the literary faculty of Lyon University and in 1919 began his theatrical work in F. Gémier’s troupe in Paris. In 1926, with C. Dullin, L. Jouvet, and G. Pitoëff, Baty established the artistic group known as Les Quatre, which struggled to renew the art of the theater. During the years 1930–47 he was the head of the Théâtre Montparnasse-Baty. In 1936 he was one of the directors of the Comédie Française; beginning in 1949 he worked primarily in the puppet theater, as well as in the provincial troupe known as the Comédie de Provence.

Baty’s productions included Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (1931), Crime and Punishment, after Dostoevsky’s novel (1933), Musset’s The Caprices of Marianne and The Night Candle (both in 1936), Madame Bovary, after Flaubert’s novel (1937), Racine’s Phèdre (1940), and Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1943). As a student and follower of Gémier, Baty staged productions which were marked by a romantic tendency, austere taste, and a meticulous selection of means of expression. He is also the author of theoretical works on the theater.