ANOUILH (Jean) - Lot 22

ANOUILH (Jean) Born in Bordeaux. 1910-1987. Playwright. L.A.S. "Jean Anouilh" to "Chere Toth" [Catherine Toth]. S.l.n.d. 2 pages in-4. Beautiful letter about the difficulties of mounting a theatrical production...I know that you have accepted the risks of Alfa's exhaustion - and Monelle's when she takes over the role in alternation if we manage to hold out a little.... You know that I had kept this part for 7 years so that she would have something to play if she regained enough health - at the last minute, the affair committed without any possible hindsight, we had to, on the doctor's orders, arrive at this compromise of alternating with the concern of finding a character of Monelle's size and tone so that the alternation could take place without pain...I'm writing all this to tell you that I consider you to be a true and astonishing actress (the femininity and coquetry transposed in the Ghelderodes definitely amazed me, as true coquettes have never known how to do) and that insofar as I'm able to speak (as I'm signing second and maybe not the adaptation at all) you'll be my only candidate for Désir sous les ormes. Without going as far as the Karsenty tour (from which I hope you've recovered), I'd like to tell you that at this luncheon I realized that you had a marble that belonged to me and that you were part of my world - a discovery I rarely make...Michel de Ghelderode, a Belgian playwright of Flemish origin and French expression, turned post-war theater upside down. Sulphurous and disturbing, his plays were performed thanks to the persistence of Catherine Toth, to whom Anouilh wrote. Désir sous les ormes is an American play in three acts by Eugene ONeill, first performed on Broadway (New York) in 1924. Jean Anouilh took part in the translation of the play, which was performed in 1953 at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées. Marcel Karsenty, to whom Anouilh refers in the letter, was a touring producer.