the Intruder is a drama in an act, written by Maurice Maeterlinck, in 1890. This part belongs to the theater of the interiority which the author instituted. It constitutes the first part of what Maeterlinck calls a small triology itself “of death”. The two other shutters are the Blind men and the Seven Princesses (1891).

The part is created in 1891 with the Theater of Art founded by Paul Fort, in a setting in scene of Lugné-Poë. The decorations are designed by painters nabis.

Intrigue

In the room of an old castle, a blind old man, surrounded by his family, guesses with unperceivable signs the presence of dead which will strike his/her daughter. The part is built on waiting, concern and the premonition. The grandfather, isolated by blindness, kept intact his intuition. He is the only one with being able to interpret the tremor of the trees, the silence of the birds and the swans, the entry of the cold in the room. In contact with darkness, it includes/understands the unknown.

In the mystical thought , interpretation is obvious: the interior vision becomes source of light and of knowledge. The blind man, in its enfermement, is the only “indicator”. This topic joined as modern interpretation as Bauchau gives myth of Oedipus: the psychic patients, like Oedipus, do not see what bursts the eyes to them and it is by working their blindness by the analysis that they undertake outward journey towards more perspicacity.

Maeterlinck creates, in this part, a worrying and heavy atmosphere. The “three girls” who surround the grandfather point out the ancient chorus. In this closed place, the impalpable approach of the “sublime character” generates an increasing terror which ceases abruptly at the entry of a sister of charity. “In its black clothing”, it makes a simple sign of cross to announce that the worst occurred, that waiting ended. The blind man remains alone.

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