Anouilh, Jean-Marie-Lucien-Pierre

Anouilh, Jean-Marie-Lucien-Pierre (1910–87), prolific French dramatist, whose plays, in translation, were almost as popular in Britain and America as in his own country. All have in common the theme of the loss of innocence implicit in the struggle for existence in a decadent society. The early ones were divided by Anouilh himself into les pièces roses—Le Bal des voleurs (Thieves' Carnival, 1938), Léocadia (Time Remembered, 1940), Le Rendezvous de Senlis (1941), Colombe (1951)—which treated the subject romantically, and les pièces noires—Le Voyageur sans bagage (Traveller without Luggage, 1937), La Sauvage (The Restless Heart, 1938)—which showed melancholy resignation. Later the mood was transmuted into the glittering wit of les pièces brillantes—L'Invitation au château (1947), La Répétition; ou, L'Amour puni (The Rehearsal, 1950)—and the bitter disillusionment of les pièces grinçantes—Ardèle; ou, La Marguérite (1948), Le Valse des toréadors (The Waltz of the Toreadors, 1952), Pauvre Bitos; ou, Le Diner des têtes (Poor Bitos, 1956). Several times Anouilh turned to history for his subjects, as in L'Alouette (The Lark, 1953), on Joan of Arc, and Becket; ou, L'Honneur de Dieu (1959), and to classical themes, as in Eurydice (1942), Antigone (1944), and Médée (1953). Antigone, produced in German-occupied Paris, aroused much controversy with its study of personal loyalties in conflict with authority. Admirably written, well constructed, and offering scope for wide-ranging styles of interpretation, Anouilh's plays attracted some of the best talents of his time. In Paris many were directed by Barsacq. In London his first outstanding success was L'Invitation au château, translated as Ring round the Moon (1950) by Christopher Fry, with Paul Scofield as the twin brothers Hugo and Frédéric. The same translation was used in America, which was not always so with other plays; different titles were sometimes used also: Le Rendezvous de Senlis was Dinner with the Family in London and Rendezvous at Senlis in New York, while Eurydice was Point of Departure in London but became Legend of Lovers in New York. Anouilh's later plays, which were less successful, included Hurluberlu; ou, Le Rèactionnaire amoureux (1959), a sequel to Ardèle, seen as The Fighting Cock at Chichester in 1966; La Grotte (The Cavern, 1961), Cher Antoine (1970), and Le Directeur de l'Opéra (1973). His last play Le Nombril (1981), depicting a formerly fashionable playwright in old age, was staged in London in 1984 as Number One in an adaptation by Michael Frayn. Anouilh also directed his own and other writers' plays, among the latter being a revival of Victor; ou, Les Enfants au pouvoir (1962) by Roger Vitrac, whom, with Molière and Giraudoux, he considered the main influence on his own work.