Amphitryon 38

Amphitryon 38
Amphitryon 38 performance at Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theater in Kraków, 1948
Written byJean Giraudoux
CharactersAmphitryon, Alcmene,
Jupiter, Mercury, Leda
Date premiered8 November 1929
Place premieredComedie des Champs-Elysees in Paris
Original languageFrench
SubjectThe god Jupiter intrudes into the faithful marriage of two mortals
GenreDrama
SettingMythological ancient Greece

Amphitryon 38 is a play written in 1929 by the French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, the number in the title being Giraudoux's whimsical approximation of how many times the story had been told on stage previously.

Original productions

Amphitryon 38 was translated into English in 1938 by S. N. Behrman,[1] in 1964 by Phyllis La Farge and Peter H. Judd,[2] and in 1967 by Roger Gellert.[3]

Amphitryon 38 was first performed on 8 November 1929[4] in Paris at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees in a production by Louis Jouvet.[5]

An English production of Amphitryon 38, starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, opened at New York's Shubert Theatre on 1 November 1937.[6]

In 1957 a BBC production included its first piece of commissioned electronic music, created by Daphne Oram.[7]

References

  1. ^ Cohen, Robert (1968), Jean Giraudoux; Three Faces of Destiny, p. 158, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
  2. ^ Giraudoux, Jean (1964), Three Plays, vol 2, Translated by Phyllis La Farge and Peter H. Judd, Hill and Wang, New York
  3. ^ Jean Giraudoux; Roger Gellert (1967). Plays: Amphitryon. Intermezzo. Ondine. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 5691905.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Grossvogel, David I. (1958), 20th Century French Drama, p. 341, Columbia University Press, New York.
  5. ^ Inskip, Donald, (1958), Jean Giraudoux, The Making of a Dramatist, p. 182, Oxford University Press, New York.
  6. ^ performingartsarchive.com: Amphitryon 38, Shubert Theatre playbill
  7. ^ "The Sounds Of New Atlantis: Daphne Oram, Radiophonics And The Drawn Sound Technique". The Wire Salon. The Wire magazine. Apr 7, 2011. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.