Five Plays: Antigone, Eurydice, The Ermine, The Rehearsal, Romeo and Jeannette [Print] [Mass Market Paperback]

Jean Anouilh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 1990 | ISBN-10: 0374522294 | ISBN-13: 978-0374522292 | Edition: 1st

The great French playwright Jean Anouilh (1910-87) wrote both "pink" bittersweet comedies and "black" tragic dramas. Jean Anouilh Five Plays—the finest English-language anthology of his works—crackles with both his sharp wit and his icy cynicism. In Antigone, his preeminent play and exemplar of his themes and style, he creates a disturbing world in which fate may be no more than a game of role-playing. Eurydice, The Ermine, The Rehearsal, Romeo and Jeannette are the other plays included in this edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Jean Anouilh there is a constant alternation between moods of brave affirmation and bitter protest; affirmation of life's primal glory, protest at what modern urban—particularly French—man has made of it . . . Traditional too in Anouilh is his dramatic form—of which he is one of the few remaining masters in the theatre of our time . . . It is essentially the theatre of the mask, the theatre which is an amalgam of ballet, farce, street fair, and improvisation—all made to serve the purpose of revealing human truth in the gravest sense. Anouilh calls some of his plays 'black' others 'pink,' but they all sparkle with the glitter of the theatre's cloak of a thousand colors."—Harold Clurman

About the Author

Jean Anouilh, one of the foremost French playwrights of the twentieth century, replaced the realist works of the previous era with his dramas, which exploit fantasy, tragic passion, scenic poetry and cosmic leaps in time and space. He used Greek myth to explore the disturbing moral dilemmas of our times. Antigone, his best-known play, was performed in 1944 in Nazi-controlled Paris.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition (September 28, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374522294
• ISBN-13: 978-0374522292
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars review of Anouilh's Five Plays, January 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Five Plays: Antigone, Eurydice, The Ermine, The Rehearsal, Romeo and Jeannette (Mass Market Paperback)

Did a study of various versions of Sophocles' *Antigone* for a highschool project last year, and used this version of Anouilh's play. I know some French and find it to be a fairly faithful translation into very persuasive English, and a wonderful read both as a version of Sophocles' original and as a political adaptation, used to speak about France under a Nazi regime. After finishing Antigone, I read the other four plays in the book for the fun of it, and thouroughly enjoyed Eurydice and Romeo and Jeannette. Anouilh seems to obsess over young love, loss of innocence, and the ideals of static perfection in a changing world; these themes seem to hold the five plays together. In my opinion, his work is worthy of a broad audience and broad acclaim, and this edition of the plays is a very decent set of translations.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent French Playwright, March 18, 2003

By 

navi (Savannah, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Plays: Antigone, Eurydice, The Ermine, The Rehearsal, Romeo and Jeannette (Mass Market Paperback)

I was first introduced to Jean Anouilh during a script analysis class, where I was required to do a scene design. My professor recommended Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" to me and I took his advice. Much to my surprise, "Antigone," set in France after the Nazi invasion, quickly became my favorite play ever. "Romeo and Jeanette" takes place in a poor family's house in France and is highly amusing. Set in the middle of a French train station with a defunct acting troupe and the poor family who runs the cafe there, "Eurydice" is quite entertaining. Anouilh definately puts a different spin on the typical love story. I highly recommend this book to anybody who's looking for something different to read, or maybe looking for a spin on the classics.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best modern theater plays, August 24, 2004

By 

A. Reader (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Plays: Antigone, Eurydice, The Ermine, The Rehearsal, Romeo and Jeannette (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read many times Antigone in its original version, and found it to be one of the most beautiful modern theater plays. The words are simple but so true, it's like you can hear the little voice of Antigone fighting against the rest of the world, fighting for her version of the truth, fighting for and against her love at the same time. Absolutely beautiful...