Ne réveillez pas madame

by Jean Anouilh, Gallimard Folio edition

AGLAÉ : Si j'aime un homme un jour, je ne ferai pas de théâtre. Je lui ferai des enfants, plein d'enfants et je les élèverai en l'attendant à la maison pour qu'il ait chaud quand il rentre et qu'il me trouve toujours là. Et quand il posera la main sur moi, il pourra dire : "C'est ma femme." Et quand je lui dirai "je t'aime", le soir, je ne viendrai pas de le dire en faisant semblant dans l'après-midi à un garçon au visage peint. J'ai horreur du théâtre.

205 pages, Pocket Book

First published October 1, 1981

About the author

Jean Anouilh was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades, producing works that ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, though he is best remembered for his 1944 production of Sophocles’ Antigone, which, despite passing censorship, was widely interpreted as a critique of the Vichy regime. Born to a tailor father and a violinist mother, Anouilh absorbed the theatre from an early age, attending rehearsals and reading scripts, and began writing plays at twelve. The family moved to Paris, where he attended the Lycée Chaptal and briefly studied law at the Sorbonne before leaving to work in advertising. Early in his career he wrote comic scenes for cinema and worked as secretary to director Louis Jouvet, whose mentorship and the influence of playwright Jean Giraudoux inspired Anouilh to pursue theatre seriously. He debuted with collaborative and solo plays such as Humulus le muet, L’Hermine, and Mandarine, which, though not commercially successful, led to greater recognition with Le voyageur sans bagage in 1937. Anouilh developed distinct categories for his plays, including pièces noires, or tragedies like Antigone, exploring moral integrity against compromise; pièces roses, comedic works emphasizing fantasy and freedom; pièces brillantes, witty plays set in aristocratic environments; pièces grinçantes, darker, ironic comedies; and pièces costumées, historical dramas such as The Lark and Becket, highlighting protagonists pursuing moral paths amidst corruption. His later works, often called pièces secrètes, focused on dramatists and theatre professionals, emphasizing family and intimate relationships over conventional theatrical action. Politically, Anouilh remained largely apolitical, serving in the French Army and living under German occupation, his plays often interpreted as ambivalent reflections on resistance and pragmatism. Critically, he was recognized for blending lyrical language, precise dialogue, and structured plots, producing a prolific output for over fifty years, and winning accolades including the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, consideration for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the inaugural Grand Prix du Théâtre de l'Académie française. His works continued to be performed internationally, balancing existential concerns, moral dilemmas, and humor, reflecting a nuanced perspective on human nature. By the end of his career, he had influenced French theatre deeply, navigating between realism, comedy, and tragedy, and remained a vital figure in twentieth-century drama until his death, leaving a legacy of plays that explore the tension between idealism and compromise, the demands of conscience, and the pursuit of integrity in a flawed world.

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Jean Anouilh and have been reading him on and off since I was a teen. I was consequently surprised the other day when we were looking around New Morning Books here in Adelaide, and I found a play by him that I'd never even heard of. I was even more surprised to discover that its obscurity isn't due to the fact that it was a flop. Quite the reverse: it was a huge success, and ran for two years and 600 performances. But whatever the reason, people seem to have forgotten about it. I only see two other ratings here on Goodreads.

It would be nice to see a revival of Ne réveillez pas madame, since it's pretty damn good. It's easy to see why it was a hit in 1971. The piece it most reminded me of was Fanny och Alexander, and if you're a fan of that movie you may well like this too. As with Bergman, Anouilh, who was 60 when he wrote it, appears to be revisiting his past in a theatrical setting. The main character is a theatre director, whom one strongly suspects is Anouilh himself. The action takes place in a theatre, where a succession of plays fade in and out of episodes from the director's life; we meet his two wives, both actresses, and his monstrous parents. Anouilh was married to two actresses, and it's more than obvious from his work that he hated and despised his parents.

As with the Bergman film, Hamlet plays an important part in the story, and maybe this gives a clue as to why Fanny och Alexander is now an icon of late twentieth century cinema, while Ne réveillez pas madame has been erased from history. Bergman cunningly weaves the Shakespearian story into his narrative. The scene directly taken from the play, where Alexander's father collapses on stage, is beautiful and unforgettable, as is his final, amused line about now being able to play the Ghost to satisfaction. But with Anouilh, it somehow doesn't quite work. The French translation is flatly unpoetic (I suspect this is intentional); the exchanges with Ophelia/the wife, and Gertrude/the mother are bitter and desperate, and there is no sense of closure. Bergman succeeds in explaining his whole life to you, but Anouilh says almost in so many words that he's given up, he can never succeed in transforming it into art and redeeming it.

So, in a way a failure. But it's a magnificent failure, and if you're at all interested in either Anouilh or Bergman then I strongly recommend it.

[Frédéric De · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce n’est pas la meilleure pièce d’Anouilh, mais son univers est bien là. Des personnages pleins d’ironie mordantes et malgré leurs petits travers, tout ce petit monde est très attachant.
Cette pièce se passe dans un théâtre, c’est du théâtre dans le théâtre, et le metteur en scène est sans doute Anouilh lui-même