Theatre
The Trojan War Will Not Take Place
La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu
Jean Giraudoux · 1935
Synopsis
Troy, on the eve of war. Paris has abducted Helen, the wife of a Greek king, and the Greeks threaten to attack if she is not returned to them. Hector returns from a campaign determined to preserve the peace; his wife Andromache, who is pregnant, supports him, while Cassandra announces that the war will take place. Hector obtains from Paris that he give Helen back, but King Priam and the poet Demokos, dazzled by her beauty, want to keep her. A Greek ambassador, Ulysses, is due to come and claim her.
Context
The play, in two acts, was first performed in November 1935 at the Théâtre de l'Athénée, in Paris, directed by Louis Jouvet, and was published by Grasset the same year. It was written at a time marked by the rise of Hitler and by tensions between France and Germany. Its author, himself a career diplomat, calls into question the conduct of diplomats, rulers and intellectuals in the face of the threat of a conflict.
Who it is for
Only two acts, in an ironic and brilliant language. It is enough to know the broad outline of the Trojan War.
Prizes and reception
In English, Christopher Fry's version appeared in 1955 under the title Tiger at the Gates, then in 1983 under that of The Trojan War Will Not Take Place.
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