Fontbonne Theatre Programs
Title
Season
1968-1969
Performance Dates
November 21, 22, 23, 24, 1968
Director
Don Garner
Description
Fontbonne Theatre
The Playwright
By his favorite devices of fantastic parable and duality of character, Giraudoux brings to The Madwoman of Chaillot his three great themes of love of humanity, the inscrutability of woman, and his anti-war theme subtly cloaked in his expression of abhorrence of materialism. The plot is quite simple: a syndicate of powerful financiers wishes to exploit the untouched deposits of oil under the streets of Paris and they ignore humanity, beauty, and truth in the process. The poor people of Paris oppose them and, eventually, triumph by literally removing them from the scene. The capitalistic forces are the stereotypes who perform as do all well-oiled machines. The people of Paris are recognizable types but each with his own individuality. In the middle and significantly devoted to the gentle souls is the Mad- woman herself - both mad and frighteningly sane. Sometimes, caught up in the communion of the theatre, we find ourselves wishing we might have made some of the clear and mercilessly true comments the Madwoman utters. Significant of the period in which it was written (1942), The Madwoman of Chaillot is relevant to any age where success ignores life and beauty in a ruthless thrust toward an indefinable goal. The mad countess has captured and held her sanity by her attempt to love life and beauty in the fullest. In the end humanity is saved and friends thank the Mad- woman who expresses the philosophy of Giraudoux "that any sensible woman can set right in the course of an afternoon whatever is wrong in a muddled world".
Sister Jane de Chantal, C.S.J.
Chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages
Document Type
Program
Publisher
Fontbonne University Archives
City
St. Louis, MO
Rights Statement
