Jean Anouilh

A selection of the most enduring work of one of this century's best-known French playwrights This selection of plays by Jean Anouilh (1910-87), includes The Rehearsal ('quintissential Anouilh', Herald Tribune); Becket ('witty, intelligent, full of repartee and irreverence' Financial Times); The Orchestra (a play within a concert), together with Eurydice, an ironic modern reworkng of the myth ('a fascinating piece', Financial Times)."Anouilh is a poet but not a poet of words, he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing." (Peter Brook)

Dramatically depicts Becket's friendship with Henry II and the events which led to Becket's murder

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."

A selection of the most enduring work of one of this century's best-known French playwrights Jean Anouilh (1910-87) along with Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, was at the forefront of the post-war generation of playwrights in Paris. In England his plays were championed by Peter Brook. Antigone is a response to the German occupation of France and established his popularity in 1944 (the Germans ironically, thought that it was a pro-Nazi in its portrayal of King Creon and thus allowed its production); Poor Bitos, Anouilh's angriest play explores the act of judicial murder and The Lark is a version of the Joan of Arc story. All three plays show his fondness for reworking myth, history and legend. Meanwhile Leocadia, about an opera singer who dies after a three day love affair with a prince and The Waltz of the Toreadors, about a general whose mistress attempts to prove his wife's infidelity, represent another talent - for ironic, modern comedy."Anouilh is a poet but not a poet of words, he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing." (Peter Brook)

Jean Anouilh's sharp and witty new play, which enjoyed a season at the Queen's Theatre, London, centres around the ageing, gout-stricken and passe playwright Leon Saint-Pe, as he struggles manfully to being a new play, provisionally entitled Les Miserables, despite the constant interruptions and selfish demands of his utterly egocentric family and friends. A master of the art of dramatic contrivance, Anouilh displays his usual stylish blend of cynicism and subtle irony when he has Leon, eventually deciding that everyone on earth is wholly self-centred, rechristen his play, Number One.5 women, 5 men

As they play their little pieces of music, the ladies of the brasserie orchestra (and the solitary male pianist) reveal seething volcanoes under the placid exterior. Jealousy, gossip, boasting and thwarted emotions climax in one of them shooting herself in the toilets - but the music goes jauntily on.6 women, 1 man

Frederic, who is shy and sensitive, and Hugo, who is heartless and aggressive. Frederic is in love with a hussy who is in love with Hugo. To save Frederic from an unhappy marriage, Hugo tries to distract him by bringing to a ball a beautiful dancer who masquerades as a mysterious personage and becomes the triumph of the occasion. She is a susceptible maiden in her own right. She not only breaks up all the cynical romances that have been going on before she arrived, but loses her own heart as well.6 women, 8 men

When the Archbishop of Canterbury died, Henry II forced his companion and political lieutenant, Thomas Becket to take his place. Becket told his King: 'If I become archbishop, I shall cease to be your friend.' Becekt, who with Henry had fought the church for the good of the State, now felt responsible for the honour of God. Conflict was inevitable and was followed, just as inevitably, by murder and remorse.

Antigone was originally produced in Paris in 1942, when France was occupied and part of Hitler's Europe. The play depicts an authoritarian regime which mirrors the predicament of the French people of the time. Based on Sophocles' ancient Greek tragedy, Antigone which was first performed in Athens in the 5th century BC, its theme was nevertheless topical. For in Antigone's faithfulness to her dead brother and his proper burial and her reiterated "No!" to the dictator Creon, the French audience saw its own resistance to the German occupation. The Germans allowed the play to be performed presumably because they found Creon's arguments for dictatorship so convincing. The play is regularly performed and studied around the world. "Anouilh is a poet, but not a poet of words: he is a poet of words-acted, of scenes-set, of players-performing" Peter Brook

Now retired, the General tries to keep old age at bay by dallying with every available pretty woman. His wife Emily, a determined invalid, perpetually complains of her husband's peccadilloes. Seventeen years ago, as they danced to the Waltz of the Toreadors, the General and Ghislaine de Ste Euvert fell in love. Ghislaine has waited, chaste and faithful, for the day when the General will be free of Emily. Now she comes to claim her man, armed with letters that prove Emily has been unfaithful.-7 women, 4 men