A selection of the most enduring work of one of this century's best-known French playwrights Jean Anouilh (1910-87) along with Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, was at the forefront of the post-war generation of playwrights in Paris. In England his plays were championed by Peter Brook. Antigone is a response to the German occupation of France and established his popularity in 1944 (the Germans ironically, thought that it was a pro-Nazi in its portrayal of King Creon and thus allowed its production); Poor Bitos, Anouilh's angriest play explores the act of judicial murder and The Lark is a version of the Joan of Arc story. All three plays show his fondness for reworking myth, history and legend. Meanwhile Leocadia, about an opera singer who dies after a three day love affair with a prince and The Waltz of the Toreadors, about a general whose mistress attempts to prove his wife's infidelity, represent another talent - for ironic, modern comedy."Anouilh is a poet but not a poet of words, he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing." (Peter Brook)

Anouilh is a poet but not a poet of words, he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing. Peter Brook, Director
Anouilh is a poet but not a poet of words, he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing. --Peter Brook, Director

Jean Anouilh was born in Bordeaux in 1910. He studied law briefly at the Sorbonne and then became a copywriter for an advertising agency. In 1931 he became secretary to the actor-manager, Louis Jouvet, and his first play, The Ermine, was staged the following year. Antigone firmly established his popularity in France in 1944, and Peter Brook's 1950 production of Ring Round the Moon in Christopher Fry's translation made his name in England. His best-known plays are: Restless Heart (1934); Dinner with the Family, Traveller without Luggage (both 1937); Thieves' Carnival (1938); Léocadia (1939); Point of Departure (Eurydice) (1941); Romeo and Jeannette (1945); Medea (1946); Ardèle (1948); The Rehearsal (1950); Colombe (1951); The Waltz of the Toreadors (1952); The Lark (1953); Ornifle (1955); Poor Bitos (1956); Becket (1956); The Fighting Cock (1966); Dear Antoine (1971); The Director of the Opera (1973); Number One (1981). Twice married, he lived mainly in Switzerland for the last thirty years of his life. Anouilh died in 1987.