Profile of Jean Anouilh
Farce, Historical Portrait and Satire from the Author of Ring Round the Moon, Waltz of the Toreadors, Antigone, Becket, The Lark and The Rehearsal.
French master Jean Anouilh's winning plays were translated to film with Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, and Richard Burton, and his plays are as eccentric as their creator.
Anouilh - pronounced "aw-nu-ee" - is like a great musician.
You can't pigeonhole this great French playwright and director for any particular style in his unique theatrical canvas. He wrote witty farces Ring Round the Moon and Waltz of the Toreadors, and is revered for historical portraits Antigone, Becket and The Lark, as well as biting satires like The Rehearsal.
Many of Anouilh's plays were successfully translated to film, including 1962's Waltz of the Toreadors, with Peter Sellers and (my all time favorite) the award-winning Becket, starring Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton.
Christopher Fry and Lillian Hellman have both translated and adapted The Lark, and Anouilh himself translated the work of Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare and Graham Greene. Anouilh, who adored Moliere, had a grand sense of humour and many a pithy quote including "It takes a certain courage and a certain greatness to be truly base". And "Nothing is irreparable in politics."
Writing as early as 12, Anouilh's love for this creative process flourished. He wrote comedy for the French cinema, dabbled in copy writing, and studied law. The eclectic nature of Anouilh's plays may well come from his own very private life. Anouilh loved to juxtapose the make-believe of the theatre world against the complexities of darkness and light in the human condition.
His breakthrough came in 1937, with La Voyageur sans Bagage (Traveler without Luggage) - a story about an amnesiac who discovers things about himself he would much rather forget. Anouilh directed a film version of Traveler in 1964, and this piece was recently adapted for French television in 2004.
Jean Anouilh's work evolves and lives on. Samuel Beckett and Henrik Isben are celebrating their centennials in 2006. Anouilh will celebrate his centennial in 2010. Generations worldwide can discover or re-discover the colours and moods in Anouilh's playbill pallette.
