Bacchus (play)

Bacchus is a 1951 play written by French dramatist Jean Cocteau. His last full-length play, it is set in a small German town in 1523, which is holding a Bacchic carnival. As part of the festivities, the village idiot is declared king for a week, and he suddenly becomes rational "and preaches an anarchic message of love and freedom, which results in his being sentenced to burn at the stake."[1]

It was opened in Théâtre Marigny in December 1951. A few days later François Mauriac attacked the play in Le Figaro littéraire accusing Cocteau of committing heresy. [2]

It was translated into English by Mary Hoeck as Bacchus. Translation has been published in The Infernal Machine and Other Plays (1963).

References

  1. ↑ Arthur King Peters: Jean Cocteau and His World. New York: Vendôme Press, 1986, p. 187. ISBN 0-86565-068-3
  2. ↑ James S. Williams: Jean Cocteau. Reaktion books, 2008.
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