''The Devil and the Good Lord'' (french: Le Diable et le Bon Dieu) is a 1951 play by French philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...

. The play concerns the moral choices of its characters,

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

Goetz,

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

Heinrich, communist leader Nasti and others during the German Peasants' War. The first act follows Goetz' transformation from vicious war criminal to a "good" person of noble deeds, as during a siege of the town of Worms, he decides not to massacre its citizens. The play was first performed at the Théâtre-Antoine in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, where it opened on 7 June 1951 and ran until March 1952.White (1993, 455). This production was directed by Louis Jouvet. Of all his dramatic writings, ''The Devil and the Good Lord'' was Sartre's favourite. He based the character of Goetz on his analysis of the psychology and morality of the writer Jean Genet, which he had developed more substantially in his ''

Saint Genet ''Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr'' (french: Saint Genet, comédien et martyr) is a book by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre about the writer Jean Genet, especially on his ''The Thief's Journal''. It was first published in 1952. Sartre desc ...

'' (1952).

References

Sources

* White, Edmund. 1993. ''Genet.'' Corrected edition. London: Picador, 1994. . 1951 plays Works about Jean Genet Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre {{1950s-play-stub