Jean Anouilh Summary

The French playwright Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) was an accomplished craftsman. His plays, from the frivolous and fanciful to the serious, exploit the artificiality of the theater to elucidate his views... Read more

Critical Essay by Leonard Cabell Pronko Anouilh's view of life and man's place in the universe has remained essentially unchanged throughout his career. The later plays clarify and elab... Read more

Critical Essay by GaËtan Picon A mainspring of Jean Anouilh's work has been a savage indictment of society, despite his belonging to the political right (although there is, to be sure, ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Chiari detects elements of the absurd in Anouilh's plays. Anouilh shares with Cocteau the incapacity to grapple with tragic themes but he has a much wider range and... Read more

In this excerpt, Archer examines elements of satire and black humor in Anouilh's piéces griçantes. The key to the cycle of pièces grinçantes lies in the scene in La Valse... Read more

In the following negative review of the 1963 New York production of The Rehearsal, Gilman contends that “we are supposed to be left with a troubled but gratified sense of how the world really g... Read more

In the following review, Hayes provides an unfavorable assessment of the 1954 New York production of Colombe. Mlle Colombe, the fifth of Jean Anouilh's plays to achieve the condition of an A... Read more

In the following essay, Roy underscores the differences between T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, Christopher Fry's Curtmantle, and Anouilh's Becket. Within the last three... Read more

In the following unfavorable review of the 1964 New York production of Traveller without Luggage, Clurman argues that the play “shows some of the salient features of Anouilh's personalit... Read more