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Giraudoux
Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy. Giraudoux's dominant theme is the relationship between man and woman—or in some cases, between man and some unattainable ideal. Biography Giraudoux was born in Bellac, Haute-Vienne, where his father, Léger Giraudoux, worked for the Ministry of Transport. Giraudoux studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux and upon graduation traveled extensively in Europe. After his return to France in 1910, he accepted a position with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With the outbreak of World War I, he served with distinction and in 1915 became the first writer ever to be awarded the wartime Legion of Honour. He married in 1918 and in the subsequent inter-war period produced the majorit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ondine (play)
''Ondine'' is a play written in 1938 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, based on the 1811 novella ''Undine'' by the German Romantic Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué that tells the story of Hans and Ondine. Hans is a knight-errant who has been sent off on a quest by his betrothed. In the forest he meets and falls in love with Ondine, a water-sprite who is attracted to the world of mortal man. The subsequent marriage of people from different worlds is, of course, folly. Plot summary The play opens in a fisherman's hut near a lake in the forest. Outside a storm rages. Here live the old fisherman Auguste and his wife Eugenie. And here lives Ondine whom the old couple found as a baby at the edge of the lake, and brought up in place of their own daughter who was mysteriously snatched away as an infant. Auguste is upset because Ondine is out somewhere in the storm. As Auguste rages, naiads, the wind, and even the King of the Ondines himself (throughout the play referred to as the Old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Apollo Of Bellac
''The Apollo of Bellac'' (French title: ''L'Apollon de Bellac'' or ''L'Apollon de Marsac'') is a comedic one-act play written in 1942 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. Plot summary The play is set in the reception room of the International Bureau of Inventions, during autumn in Paris. It focuses on a timid, young woman by the name of Agnes. After she arrives, she is given the most powerful secret in life by a homeless man from the little town of Bellac.The Times, 13 August 1955; ''Giraudoux Play On Television "The Apollo Of Bellac"'' Like Giraudoux himself, the man comes from the Limousin region of France. The secret he gives her is to tell all men that they are beautiful ("How beautiful you are!" or "Comme vous êtes beau!") and they will play right into your hands. She quickly catches on and the men of the Bureau fall for her left and right. In the Valency translation, it ends with her meeting the handsome (and single) Chairman of the Board, and everyone wondering what has ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegfried (play)
'' Siegfried '' is a play written in 1928 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, adapted from his own 1922 novel, ''Siegfried et le Limousin''. The novel had launched Giraudoux's literary career, and the play based upon it established his reputation as a playwright. "It iegfriedmarked the beginning of a productive, lifelong collaboration with actor-director Louis Jouvet, whom Giraudoux credits with transforming his literary plays into theater pieces."A noted Frenchman turns to playwriting, New York Times, May 20, 1928, pg. 101 Original productions ''Siegfried'' was translated into English in 1930 by Philip Carr and again in 1964 by Phyllis La Farge and Peter H. Judd. ''Siegfried'' was first performed on 3 May 1928 in Paris at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees in a production by Louis Jouvet Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet (24 December 1887 – 16 August 1951) was a French actor, theatre director and filmmaker. Early life Jouvet was born in Crozon. He had a stutter as a young ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Enchanted (play)
'' The Enchanted '' is a 1950 English adaptation by Maurice Valency of the play '' Intermezzo '' written in 1933 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. Original productions ''Intermezzo'' was translated into English as ''The Enchanted'' by Maurice Valency, in ''Jean Giraudoux, Four Plays'', vol. 1 (1958), and by Roger Gellert, in ''Jean Giraudoux, Plays'', vol. 2 (1967). '' Intermezzo '' was first performed on 27 February 1933 in Paris at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees in a production by Louis Jouvet. Maurice Valency's adaptation ''The Enchanted'' opened at New York's Lyceum Theatre on 18 January 1950 in a production staged by George S. Kaufman, starring Leueen MacGrath, Malcolm Keen, and John Baragrey John Baragrey (April 15, 1918 – August 4, 1975) was an American film, television, and stage actor who appeared in virtually every dramatic television series of the 1950s and early 1960s. Early years Baragrey was born in Haleyville, Alabam .... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphitryon 38
''Amphitryon 38'' is a play written in 1929 by the French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, the number in the title being Giraudoux's whimsical approximation of how many times the story had been told on stage previously. Original productions ''Amphitryon 38'' was translated into English in 1938 by S. N. Behrman, in 1964 by Phyllis La Farge and Peter H. Judd, and in 1967 by Roger Gellert. ''Amphitryon 38'' was first performed on 8 November 1929 in Paris at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees in a production by Louis Jouvet. An English production of ''Amphitryon 38'', starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, opened at New York's Shubert Theatre on 1 November 1937. In 1957 a BBC production included its first piece of commissioned electronic music, created by Daphne Oram Daphne Blake Oram (31 December 1925 – 5 January 2003) was a British composer and electronic musician. She was one of the first British composers to produce electronic sound, and was an early practitioner of musique concr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Madwoman Of Chaillot
''The Madwoman of Chaillot'' (french: La Folle de Chaillot) is a play, a poetic satire, by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, written in 1943 and first performed in 1945, after his death. The play is in two acts. The story concerns an eccentric woman who lives in Paris and her struggles against the straitlaced authority figures in her life. The original production was done with Giraudoux's frequent collaborator, actor and theater director Louis Jouvet, who played the Ragpicker. The celebrated French actress Marguerite Moreno was the inspiration for the piece. The play has frequently been revived in France, with the title role played by Edwige Feuillère, Madeleine Robinson, or Judith Magre. Plot summary The play is set in the cafe "chez Francis" in the Place de l'Alma in the Chaillot district of Paris. A group of corrupt corporate executives are meeting. They include the Prospector, the President, the Broker and the Baron, and they are planning to dig up Paris to get at the oil wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Trojan War Will Not Take Place
''The Trojan War Will Not Take Place'' (french: La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu) is a play written in 1935 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. In 1955 it was translated into English by Christopher Fry with the title ''Tiger at the Gates''. The play has two acts and follows the convention of the classical unities. Within the framework of the Iliadic myth of the Trojan War, Giraudoux criticizes diplomacy and the behaviour of the national leaders and intellectuals who brought about World War I and the lead-up to World War II. Plot summary The play takes place the day before the outbreak of the Trojan War inside the gates of the city of Troy. It follows the struggle of the disillusioned Trojan military commander Hector, supported by the women of Troy, as he tries to avoid war with the Greeks. Hector's wife Andromache is pregnant, and this reinforces his desire for peace. Along with his worldly-wise mother Hecuba, Hector leads the anti-war argument and tries to persuade his brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially ''The Lady's Not for Burning'', which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Early life Fry was born as Arthur Hammond Harris in Bristol, the son of Charles John Harris, a master builder who retired early to work full-time as a licensed Lay Reader in the Church of England, and his wife Emma Marguerite Fry Hammond Harris. While still young, he took his mother's maiden name because, on very tenuous grounds, he believed her to be related to the 19th-century Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. He adopted Elizabeth Fry's faith, and became a Quaker. After attending Bedford Modern School, where he wrote amateur plays, he became a schoolteacher, working at the Bedford Froebel Kindergarten and Hazelwood School in Limpsfield, Surrey. In the 1920s, he met the writer Robert Gittings, who became a lifelong friend. Caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duel Of Angels
'' Duel of Angels '' (1963) is an English-language adaptation by Christopher Fry of the play ''Pour Lucrèce'' (1944) by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. The play is based on the story of Lucretia, the virtuous Roman housewife who was raped and, finding no support from her husband and his friends, is driven to suicide. This is the same legend that was used by Shakespeare in ''The Rape of Lucrece''. Giraudoux gives the Roman legend a new locale, setting his drama in nineteenth-century Aix-en-Provence in southern France. Original productions ''Pour Lucrèce'' was translated into English as ''Duel of Angels'' by Christopher Fry, in ''The Drama of Jean Giraudoux'', vol. 1 (1963). '' Pour Lucrèce'' was not performed until nine years after the author's death on 4 November 1953 in Paris at the Marigny Theatre in a production by Jean-Louis Barrault. ''Duel of Angels'' opened on 24 April 1958 at the Apollo Theatre in a production directed by Jean-Louis Barrault, and starring Vivien Lei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Valency
Maurice Valency (22 March 1903 – 28 September 1996) was a playwright, author, critic, and popular professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, best known for his award-winning adaptations of plays by Jean Giraudoux and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. He wrote several original plays, but is best known for his adaptations of the plays of others. Valency's version of ''The Madwoman of Chaillot'' would become the basis of the Jerry Herman musical ''Dear World'' on Broadway. He is also noted for his book ''The Flower and the Castle: An Introduction to Modern Drama''. John Gassner in his review of this book said that Mr. Valency brought to his work "a lifetime of study and experience as well as a viewpoint both Olympian and engaged." Valency also wrote television plays, adaptations of librettos, novels, and academic works on Anton Chekhov, Chekhov, August Strindberg, Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw, Shaw. Life Maurice Valency was educated in New Yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegfried Et Le Limousin
''Siegfried et le Limousin'' is a novel by Jean Giraudoux published in 1922 by Grasset. This novel is famous for having brought success to its author. In the story, Giraudoux explores the hostility between two warring countries, France and Germany, which underlies the tale of a man who has lost his memory. Giraudoux went on to adapt the story as the successful drama ''Siegfried'' in 1928. Summary The novel begins in January 1922. The narrator suspects, through stylistic hints in a German newspaper, that a famous German jurist, Siegfried von Kleist, might be one of his friends–a French soldier and writer, Jacques Forestier. However, Forestier had been reported missing during the Great War–the First World War. A wound suffered in that war indeed caused Forestier to become an amnesiac, who then continued his life in Germany under a completely different name, unaware of his former identity. The narrator goes to Munich, where he hopes to identify Forestier with the help of Baron von ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Jouvet
Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet (24 December 1887 – 16 August 1951) was a French actor, theatre director and filmmaker. Early life Jouvet was born in Crozon. He had a stutter as a young man and originally trained as a pharmacist. He received an advanced degree in pharmacy in 1913, though he never actually practiced, instead pursuing a career in theatre.:91 Career Jouvet was 'refused three times by the ''Conservatoire''' in Paris before being accepted to Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier as a stage manager in 1913.:345 Copeau's training included a varied and demanding schedule, regular exercise for agility and stamina, and pressing his cast and crew to invent theatrical effects in a bare-bones space. It was there Jouvet developed his considerable stagecraft skills, particularly makeup and lighting (he developed a kind of accent light named the ''jouvet''). These years included a successful tour to the United States. While influential, Copeau's theater was never ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
