'' Siegfried '' is a play written in 1928 by French dramatist

Jean 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 ...

, adapted from his own 1922 novel, ''

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 ...

''. 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 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 receive ...

, 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

.Inskip, Donald, (1958), '' Jean Giraudoux, The Making of a Dramatist'', p. 182, Oxford University Press, New York.

Plot

We are introduced to Siegfried as the new national hero of Germany, an amnesiac survivor of World War I, who sprang from unknown origins to lead the country into a new period of modernization and prosperity. Baron von Zelten opposes Siegfried's project, loving the old German folk traditions. He also is one of the only Germans to know the truth about the new leader: he is actually a French soldier and writer, Jacques Forestier. A field nurse, Eva, had nursed him back to health knowing his real nationality, but took advantage of his amnesia to reeducate him as a German. In hopes of preserving the cultural heritage of his people, Zelten brings Siegfried's lover, Genevieve, to the German town of Gotha, ostensibly to give lessons in French, but really in hopes that she may restore his memory. Ironically, Zelten and Genevieve dash Siegfried's self-conception as the symbol of a new Germany precisely by revealing the soldier's true identity. A struggle ensues between the notion of identity as defined by one's birth and blood ties, and the idea that identity is something one can create in a vacuum; Eva and Genevieve take these opposing points-of-view, attempting to help the national hero of Germany. In the course of the political turmoil that results, Zelten is banished, but Siegfried leaves to resume his old life in France with Genevieve.

References

Plays by Jean Giraudoux 1928 plays Plays based on novels