Introduction


Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh was both an optimist and a pessimist. More than anything else, his works are characterized by those two extremes, which are often placed in direct conflict with each other in his plays. His most famous work is Antigone, written in 1942 as a response to the Second World War. In it, Anouilh takes the structure of the classic Greek tragedy and creates a modern parallel about the struggles of man against the state. The lack of gray area may have prevented his works from being fully appreciated during his lifetime, but the reputation of his plays has grown in the last three decades. And why not? Anouilh’s stories are about individuals who represent hope, beauty, love, and faith in the face of oppressive, often insurmountable forces.

Essential Facts

  1. Before finding success as a writer, Anouilh studied (and later abandoned) law and had a brief career in advertising.
  2. Anouilh attended secondary school at the College Chaptal, where one of his classmates was French actor-director Jean-Louis Barrault.
  3. Despite his current reputation, many of Anouilh’s early plays bombed. It took nearly a decade of writing dramas before he crafted what some believe to be his masterpiece, Antigone.
  4. Anouilh’s difficult personality often put him at odds with other artists and luminaries. His adversarial nature truncated his brief working relationship with French theatrical legend Louis Jouvet.
  5. Anouilh was fond of grouping his plays according to colors (often evoking central themes or genres). He even created a separate category for his failed works.