Theatrical Activity in Paris - 4 - "Amphitryon 38"

By the French writer Giraudoux (Y. Giraudoux)
At the Comédie des Champs-Élysées theater

Jupiter, chief of the gods, looks down upon the earth one day and sees the young, bewitching Alcmène in the arms of her husband Amphitryon. He is smitten with her, and it pleases him to entangle her in an amorous adventure — and how many are his adventures with beautiful wives! — and here he is, preparing for this earthly journey... But Alcmène is a wife faithful to her vow, who loves her husband and refuses the adventures of lovers and their gallantries. So Mercure, messenger of the gods, advises him to appear to her in the form of the beloved husband, so as to win her acceptance, since there is no way of reaching her except by this means...

Jupiter sends Amphitryon away from his wife on the pretext of a war he lets break out between the people of Thebes and their neighbors, and he profits by this opportunity to be with Alcmène, claiming that he is Amphitryon and has stolen away one night from the nights of battle to be with his beloved wife... Alcmène is caught in the snares of the gods and believes herself in her husband's arms, and now she carries in her womb the fruit of this divine visit — Hercules, the demigod, hero of the generations to come...

In the morning it pleases Jupiter to call up the memories of his past night, and behold, Alcmène, the simple woman, is an obscure riddle he cannot understand... He wants this woman to confess that this night was the most astonishing night of her married life, but she shakes her head mockingly and mentions others among her astonishing nights... He offers her divinity and its pomp, and she refuses it. He offers her immortality, and she does not want it.
— Do you not wish to be a goddess, or a demigoddess?
— No... never... and why?
— That you may fly on the wings of the ether and the waves...

— That is what every wife burdened with a good husband does...
— That you may grasp the meaning of creation and the other worlds...
— I do not care for curiosity... and I have never once longed to know what the neighbors are doing.
— That you may be immortal, then!
— Immortal?... And what good is immortality to me?...
— You would shine forever, a radiant star in the boundless sky of eternity...
— Thank you for this offer... No... I prefer to taste the cherries of our orchard... they have a special flavor that I love...

He paints death for her, cold and fearful, but she does not turn away from it, for it is the lot of life and of the living; as for immortality for herself alone, it would be a betrayal of the human race, and she has no need of it... In vain does Jupiter try to lift Alcmène out of her limited humanity and open her eyes so that the eternal secrets of existence might be unveiled before her; but she persists in refusing, and prefers the bounds of the human existence into which she was born, to enjoy its happy moments with her beloved husband... And it is she who advises him to temper his grandiloquent talk and return to the field of battle, where duty calls him, so that she may return to her household duties... And she slips out of his hands without his ever managing to reveal to her his divine self...

Here is Jupiter, perplexed and defeated before this simple woman content with her humanity... This weighs heavily on the lord of the gods, so he resolves to honor Alcmène and her city and the world with a second visit, an open one, with no trickery or deception in it... He will visit her as Jupiter and dazzle her with his grandeur and his might... Mercure proclaims this great tidings; the wastes and valleys echo it, the winds and the waves carry it, and it reaches the ears of the people of Thebes. The dancing maidens come to Alcmène's palace rejoicing and exultant, and processions of priests march along repeating thanks and prayer to the lord of the gods and creator of the universes, because he has singled out their city for this great honor...

Jupiter arrives in his divine pomp at Amphitryon's house and declares his will to the faithful couple. Amphitryon confronts him, resisting, defending his conjugal rights. Jupiter mocks him, saying:

— Would you make war on the gods?
— Yes.
— And what is your weapon?
— My wife Alcmène!
— Very well — leave her with me, then...

Jupiter is left alone with Alcmène and declares to her his divine love, and between them unfolds a polished dialogue in a graceful style, in which shine forth Giraudoux's skill and his adroitness at casting simple, enchanting phrases and choosing the magical, musical word. He creates a delightful, fanciful atmosphere, shot through with witty pleasantries, which takes hold of our feelings and lifts us out of our ordinary, earthbound world into the world of supernatural beauty

— the world of magic and imagination. And behold, we have an appointment with the gods face to face, flying on the wings of ether; but soon we descend once more — by the magic of a simple word — to this earth; our feet touch its hard crust and we throw ourselves into its embrace, for it is our tender mother, and our leap was no more than a yearning excursion toward the world of infinity — to return to the world with, in our gait, a trace of the adventure's reeling, and in our gaze a gleam of that perfect light...

This dialogue ends with the triumph of Alcmène, the simple woman, over Jupiter, king of the gods: she insists on her conjugal fidelity, prefers death to betrayal, and offers the master of the universes a balanced human friendship in place of the unbridled love of the gods. It pleases Jupiter to try human friendship, and he accepts this new covenant between himself and this weak, stubborn human creature... He gives her a farewell kiss, and heavenly voices repeat: Farewell, Alcmène... Farewell, Jupiter... The gods return to their abode and the processions of priests to their cells, and Alcmène throws herself into her husband's arms, to enjoy the earthly happiness for which she was created...

A struggle between gods and men — between earth and heaven — between the supernatural and the ordinary — a theme Giraudoux treated again and again, and from which he created a theater that has astonished the civilized world for thirty years, and that still discloses human truths and artistic values which point unmistakably to its permanent place in the immortal literature of the classics... And as he depicts this struggle with his original literary style and his brilliant theatrical skill, he leaves us in a delicious perplexity, not knowing to which side the scale has tipped... For if Alcmène triumphed over the gods by her human will and her attachment to this perishable conjugal happiness, the gods had triumphed over her before that, and had quickened in her womb Hercules, the demigod whose destiny was decreed from all eternity...

Ondine (in the play Ondine), the sprite of the waters, triumphs over the woman Bertha and wins the love of the knight Hans, but in the end she returns, disappointed, to her watery world after Hans betrays her... And Isabelle (in the play Intermezzo) dallies with the beautiful specter of her dreams, who all but carries her off to the world of the dead, until a violent struggle breaks out between him and her practical young fiancé, and the latter brings her back to life once more... And likewise, in the play Judith, the yearning to break free of the rule of the gods... A continual struggle between imagination and reality — between fate and man — in which the forces are evenly matched and the standards differ; for man has his earth and all that is upon it, and the gods have their world and their standards...

And if we try to arrive, behind these magical games and these intellectual turns, at a clear creed of Giraudoux's, we come back disappointed, for this beloved poet, with his enchanting smile and his winning personality, remains an obscure secret that puzzles the great writers and thinkers... Perhaps his genius is distinguished precisely by defying description and comprehension... He is that French man of letters, heir of logical classicism; he is that modern renewer, the symbolist bearing the banner of his age; and he is the humanist of violent existential excursions and of refined poetic feeling — he is all of that, and yet he is a folded secret who never spoke of himself and never once proclaimed his creed... The literary historian faces an arduous task if he attempts to uncover the folds of his thought or to solve the riddles of his literature and its symbols...

For that reason, the staging of his plays is a difficult matter, demanding deep understanding, refined sensibility, and brilliant artistic skill. Shortly before the last war, and after it, the genius actor Jouvet took part in staging them, and he was at once interpreter and inspirer; he collaborated with Giraudoux

on the production of "Amphitryon" in 1929, which met with the admiration and astonishment of the critics and was counted an important event in the history of the French theater.

In its present form it was staged by Claude Sainval. Jean-Pierre Aumont (J. P. Aumont) played the role of Jupiter, Françoise Christophe (F. Christophe) the role of Alcmène, and William Sabatier (W. Sabathier) the role of Amphitryon. Jean Malclès (J. C. Malcles) excelled in the stage decor and the enchanting Greek costumes. And the gifted musician Jean-Michel Damase (J. M. Damase) contributed to creating the magical atmosphere that usually distinguishes Giraudoux's plays.

It is a company of the brilliant stars of the Parisian stage; and yet, in spite of that, we come out of the play feeling that we still fall short of the ideal measure of the total beauty that Giraudoux encompassed with his word and his imagination. For it is not easy for an actor to grasp all the psychological touches and the profound intellectual turns contained in his literature — so simple in appearance, so impossible to imitate. Nothing less than a brilliant genius like the actor Jouvet is needed to undertake this mighty task.