The dramatic work

Arrangement based on Molière’s “Les Fourberies de Scapin”  

Claudel wanted to tackle Les Fourberies de Scapin after seeing it at the Théâtre Marigny in February 1949,

 » Read more about: Le Ravissement de Scapin   »

(1934-35, 1938)

Circumstances of composition

Joan of Arc at the stake is the result of an order from Ida Rubinstein. After seeing the Sorbonne student troupe Les Théophiliens breathe new life into medieval theatre at the beginning of 1934,

(1927-28)

Less valued, in the context of literary studies, than Claudel’s earlier dramatic works and less accomplished than The Satin Slipper, of which it appears as a kind of supplement,

The Story of Tobias and Sarah holds an unprecedented place in the Claudelian corpus. Composed in June-July 1938, published by Gallimard in April 1942, the play borrows from multiple genres – theatre,

Man and His Desire (L’Homme et son désir), 1917–18, 1921

In 1917, when serving as Minister Plenipotentiary in Rio de Janeiro with Darius Milhaud as his secretary,

Like Mallarmé translator of Poe, or Gide translator of Shakespeare, Claudel devoted himself to what he considered a “beautiful art”. He began by tackling Greek tragedy with a very personal version of the Aeschylean Oresteia.

“Sentimental and dramatic testament”, both “summation” and “reflection” of previous dramas, The Satin Slipper is the “opus mirandum”, the major work in which the author affirmed that he had brought together the essential matter of his life,

A radio extravaganza 

In 1947, Claudel rewrites for the radio L’Endormie, his farce of 1887 which bothered him enormously. For this he mixes memories of 

Two lyrical farces 

Claudel composed Protée in 1913, taking up the title of a lost satirical drama that Aeschylus had imagined to complete his Oresteia.

L’Otage/The Hostage

Conceived in the beginning of 1908, while Claudel was posted to Beijing, L’Otage was not completed until 1910 in Prague, and was published in the NRF in December 1910 and January-February 1911.

In 1912, Paul Claudel’s first play to be performed « The Tidings Brought to Mary » remains  his most popular and emblematic one. The story of this text is a long one,

(Partage de Midi)

1 – The drama

Partage de Midi is a drama in three acts, which bears everywhere the marks of high style while mixing, with the freedom of great art,

TEXT

This text was written in China between 1895 and 1896. Claudel arrived in Shanghai as substitute consul on 14 July 1895.

Written during the last first months of this stay in the Middle Empire,

Text 

The Exchange is a doubly American play: composed in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, it presents an action that takes place in the same country.

The first version of the play was written in 1892 following the first version of The City.

A peasant drama followed an urban drama and was constructed around the sacrifice of the heroine Violaine.

Text

The rewriting of La Ville began in late 1894 or early 1895, while Claudel was still at his post in Boston. It continued until 1898 in China,

Second version

The text

The second version of Tête d’Or was revised in 1894, as evidenced by the manuscript acquired by the BNF in 1990. The full text was first published in L’Arbre.