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Five Plays: A Dramabook
The plays included in this collection are:
1. Orphée (translated by Carl Wildman)
2. Antigone (translated by Carl Wildman)
3. Intimate Relations (English version by Charles Frank)
4. The Holy Terrors (English version by Edward O. Marsh)
5. The Eagle with Two Heads (English version by Carl Wildman)
1. Orphée (translated by Carl Wildman)
2. Antigone (translated by Carl Wildman)
3. Intimate Relations (English version by Charles Frank)
4. The Holy Terrors (English version by Edward O. Marsh)
5. The Eagle with Two Heads (English version by Carl Wildman)
310 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1961
3 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Jean Cocteau
575 books895 followersJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright and filmmaker. Along with other Surrealists of his generation (Jean Anouilh and René Char for example) Cocteau grappled with the "algebra" of verbal codes old and new, mise en scène language and technologies of modernism to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Colette, Édith Piaf, whom he cast in one of his one act plays entitled Le Bel Indifferent in 1940, and Raymond Radiguet.
His work was played out in the theatrical world of the Grands Theatres, the Boulevards and beyond during the Parisian epoque he both lived through and helped define and create. His versatile, unconventional approach and enormous output brought him international acclaim.
His work was played out in the theatrical world of the Grands Theatres, the Boulevards and beyond during the Parisian epoque he both lived through and helped define and create. His versatile, unconventional approach and enormous output brought him international acclaim.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 25, 2018
Cocteau was a great writer and artist in a number of media and modes: he produced visual art; directed films; and wrote novels, plays, essays, poetry and autobiographical work. This book reflects Cocteau's versatility in several different genres of drama.
Orphee is a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. I prefer Cocteau's film version to the play, but the theatrical version has some interesting things that are not used in the film version, including a moment of Pirandellian self-reflexivity. Here, Cocteau deploys the resources of the stage (trap doors, wires) to create the illusion of the fantastic world in which the story is set, something that he would do to a greater extent when he came to make his film version.
Antigone is Cocteau's translation of Sophocles's classic drama (modernized versions of Greek tragedy appear to have been popular in France at the time--see, for instance, Jean Anouilh's Antigone and Jean-Paul Sartre's Les mouches, a rewriting of Aeschylus's The Oresteia). Here, then, is a translation into English of Cocteau's translation into French of the original Greek of Sophocles's play. The main difference between Cocteau's play and the original is that Cocteau has shortened some lines and removed others, with the result that his version is not even half the length of the Sophoclean work.
Intimate Relations is a tragic work set in a modern domestic setting. A young man introduces his family to his new girlfriend, which leads to unexpected discoveries and difficult choices.
The Holy Terrors depicts a love triangle involving actors. Along with its commentary on such topics as art, life and love, this play includes moments that seem particularly contemporary, as for instance when one character complains of the difficulty of finding parking.
The Eagle Has Two Heads is a political drama in which personal feelings develop between a reclusive queen and the anarchist who has come to her castle to assassinate her.
Orphee is a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. I prefer Cocteau's film version to the play, but the theatrical version has some interesting things that are not used in the film version, including a moment of Pirandellian self-reflexivity. Here, Cocteau deploys the resources of the stage (trap doors, wires) to create the illusion of the fantastic world in which the story is set, something that he would do to a greater extent when he came to make his film version.
Antigone is Cocteau's translation of Sophocles's classic drama (modernized versions of Greek tragedy appear to have been popular in France at the time--see, for instance, Jean Anouilh's Antigone and Jean-Paul Sartre's Les mouches, a rewriting of Aeschylus's The Oresteia). Here, then, is a translation into English of Cocteau's translation into French of the original Greek of Sophocles's play. The main difference between Cocteau's play and the original is that Cocteau has shortened some lines and removed others, with the result that his version is not even half the length of the Sophoclean work.
Intimate Relations is a tragic work set in a modern domestic setting. A young man introduces his family to his new girlfriend, which leads to unexpected discoveries and difficult choices.
The Holy Terrors depicts a love triangle involving actors. Along with its commentary on such topics as art, life and love, this play includes moments that seem particularly contemporary, as for instance when one character complains of the difficulty of finding parking.
The Eagle Has Two Heads is a political drama in which personal feelings develop between a reclusive queen and the anarchist who has come to her castle to assassinate her.
August 5, 2008
These plays range from wonderfully amusing and wierd, (Orphée) to utterly engrossing and scary, (Intimate Relations.) A good choice for those interested in surrealist/post-psychoanalysis drama and the roots of absurdist theater.
June 18, 2024
A collection that shows why Cocteau should be just as highly regarded for his theater as his films, poetry, and artwork. My reviews for each play:
Orphée
Antigone
Les parents terribles
Les monstres sacrés
L'aigle à deux têtes
Orphée
Antigone
Les parents terribles
Les monstres sacrés
L'aigle à deux têtes
July 8, 2012
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) is a fascinating French, 20th century avant-garde figure. Considered an artistic polymath, he produced outstanding works as poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, painter, filmmaker, ballet scenarist, ceramist and illustrator. His considerable gifts, including a flair for collaborative and memorable ventures with other world-class figures of his time. For example, his adaptation of Sophocles´Antigone, was first staged in 1922 with scenery by Pablo Picasso, music by Arthur Honneger and costumes by Coco Chanel. Cocteau himself claimed he was basically a poet who expressed himself in different media. He has also been quoted as saying “poets don´t draw. They untie handwriting and then knot it up again in a different way.”
An excellent documentary film by Noël Simolo on Cocteau (Lies and Truths) which includes interviews with him can be found in seven parts on YouTube, beginning at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ06xW...
This book presents five of his plays written from 1922 (Antigone) to 1946 (The Eagle with Two Heads. Cocteau himself produced film versions of several of these plays.
Antigone is a prose translation of Sophocles´play, which cuts about half of the play, especially the chorus´ lines. It represented a first attempt at reviving Greek tragedy in a more modern idiom. An interesting computer-aided analysis by Jocelyn Le Ber of how Cocteau condenses the play can be found at http://www.revue-texto.net/Parutions/... . It compares favorably with both Robert Fagles´ and the Elizabeth Wyckoff´s translations in clarity and dramatic sense.
Orphée is very loosely based on the greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and is clearly, in form at least, the most self-consciously avant-garde of the plays included in this book. In this drama, Orpheus is married to Eurydice, their (literal) guardian angel is a glazier, a horse taps out verses for Orpheus, Death appears in the guise of a beautiful woman in evening dress who dons surgeon´s gloves to detach souls and the passageway to and from the underworld are mirrors. The play has a dream-like, modernist logic which, to the modern reader immediately suggests both surrealism and the theatre of the absurd. Interestingly enough, Jean Cocteau produced two more works on Orpheus, one of which is his own film adaptation of the play, produced some fifteen years later. The horse is replaced by cryptic radio messages based on wartime coded underground broadcasts, Orpheus falls in love with Princess Death, and the passageways to the underworld run through the shell and rubble of bombed out buildings. In my opinion, the film is the better work. Pieces of the film can be found on YouTube, starting with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQHqGt... .
Intimate relations is a claustrophobic story which starts out like a drawing-room comedy and ends up as a tragedy. A jealous, over-protective mother, Yvonne, smothers her son Michael and neglects her husband George. George takes up with Madeleine who also turns out to be Michael´s fiancée. To further complicate matters, George and Yvonne live with Yvonne´s sister Léo who was jilted by George in order to marry Yvonne. In this underground hothouse of confused and latent incestuous relationships, Michael´s love for Madeleine doesn´t stand much of a chance. The play anticipates Tennessee Williams´ work by some two decades. A fascinating comparison between Jean Cocteau and Tennessee Williams can be found in Jean Kontaxopoulos essay “Orpheus Introspecting: Tennessee Williams and Jean Cocteau” which is available at: http://www.tennesseewilliamsstudies.o...
Cocteau was a successful film maker, which makes The Holy Terrors all the more surprising. In a sense, it is yet another of Cocteau´s reworking of the Orpheus myth, in which an aging actress pushes her actor-husband into the arms of a grasping and crass young actress, in order to discover a deeper truth about her marriage. There are some fine passages on the difference between film and theatre, and it is, in spite of its hovering on the brink of farce, in some sense, an eulogy on classical French theatre.
The Eagle with Two Heads is, in my opinion, the least successful play in this selection. In a brief introduction to the play Cocteau remarks:
The play is historical fiction which attempts to entwine court politics and love with a symbolist twist. As historical drama, it compares very unfavourably,not only with Schiller´s work but even with Henri Montherlant´s. The play can be construed as the Queen´s toying with the drama of her own death;in this sense, it is another of Cocteau´s variations on his reworking of the Orpheus myth as the myth of the poet inspired by and enamoured of his personal death.
An excellent documentary film by Noël Simolo on Cocteau (Lies and Truths) which includes interviews with him can be found in seven parts on YouTube, beginning at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ06xW...
This book presents five of his plays written from 1922 (Antigone) to 1946 (The Eagle with Two Heads. Cocteau himself produced film versions of several of these plays.
Antigone is a prose translation of Sophocles´play, which cuts about half of the play, especially the chorus´ lines. It represented a first attempt at reviving Greek tragedy in a more modern idiom. An interesting computer-aided analysis by Jocelyn Le Ber of how Cocteau condenses the play can be found at http://www.revue-texto.net/Parutions/... . It compares favorably with both Robert Fagles´ and the Elizabeth Wyckoff´s translations in clarity and dramatic sense.
Orphée is very loosely based on the greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and is clearly, in form at least, the most self-consciously avant-garde of the plays included in this book. In this drama, Orpheus is married to Eurydice, their (literal) guardian angel is a glazier, a horse taps out verses for Orpheus, Death appears in the guise of a beautiful woman in evening dress who dons surgeon´s gloves to detach souls and the passageway to and from the underworld are mirrors. The play has a dream-like, modernist logic which, to the modern reader immediately suggests both surrealism and the theatre of the absurd. Interestingly enough, Jean Cocteau produced two more works on Orpheus, one of which is his own film adaptation of the play, produced some fifteen years later. The horse is replaced by cryptic radio messages based on wartime coded underground broadcasts, Orpheus falls in love with Princess Death, and the passageways to the underworld run through the shell and rubble of bombed out buildings. In my opinion, the film is the better work. Pieces of the film can be found on YouTube, starting with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQHqGt... .
Intimate relations is a claustrophobic story which starts out like a drawing-room comedy and ends up as a tragedy. A jealous, over-protective mother, Yvonne, smothers her son Michael and neglects her husband George. George takes up with Madeleine who also turns out to be Michael´s fiancée. To further complicate matters, George and Yvonne live with Yvonne´s sister Léo who was jilted by George in order to marry Yvonne. In this underground hothouse of confused and latent incestuous relationships, Michael´s love for Madeleine doesn´t stand much of a chance. The play anticipates Tennessee Williams´ work by some two decades. A fascinating comparison between Jean Cocteau and Tennessee Williams can be found in Jean Kontaxopoulos essay “Orpheus Introspecting: Tennessee Williams and Jean Cocteau” which is available at: http://www.tennesseewilliamsstudies.o...
Cocteau was a successful film maker, which makes The Holy Terrors all the more surprising. In a sense, it is yet another of Cocteau´s reworking of the Orpheus myth, in which an aging actress pushes her actor-husband into the arms of a grasping and crass young actress, in order to discover a deeper truth about her marriage. There are some fine passages on the difference between film and theatre, and it is, in spite of its hovering on the brink of farce, in some sense, an eulogy on classical French theatre.
The Eagle with Two Heads is, in my opinion, the least successful play in this selection. In a brief introduction to the play Cocteau remarks:
The tragedy of Krantz will always remain an enigma [...] The Queen was found stabbed in the back at the top of the library staircase, by an open window. She was wearing a riding habit and had just taken the salute from her soldiers. She had appeared, for the first time, unveiled.
The assasin was lying at the bottom of the stairs, struck dead by poison.
The play is historical fiction which attempts to entwine court politics and love with a symbolist twist. As historical drama, it compares very unfavourably,not only with Schiller´s work but even with Henri Montherlant´s. The play can be construed as the Queen´s toying with the drama of her own death;in this sense, it is another of Cocteau´s variations on his reworking of the Orpheus myth as the myth of the poet inspired by and enamoured of his personal death.
June 22, 2020
The plays do show their age in some instances, but I found myself fully engrossed in both Intimate Relations and The Eagle With Two Faces.
April 13, 2022
Orphée particularly caught my attention.
A beautiful reinterpretation of Greek myth.
A beautiful reinterpretation of Greek myth.
December 13, 2007
pretty weird, but pretty good
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews