'' Judith '' is a play written in 1931 by French dramatist

Jean Giraudoux Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; ; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His wo ...

. French composer

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

wrote

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...

for the play.

Synopsis

In ancient Palestine, an

Assyrian army The Neo-Assyrian Empire arose in the 10th century BC. Ashurnasirpal II is credited for utilizing sound strategy in his wars of conquest. While aiming to secure defensible frontiers, he would launch raids further inland against his opponents as a ...

is attacking a community of Jewish people (

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

). The Assyrians are led by

Holofernes Holofernes (; ) was an invading Assyrian general in the Book of Judith, who was beheaded by Judith, who entered his camp and decapitated him while he was intoxicated. Etymology The name 'Holofernes' is derived from the Old Persian name , meanin ...

. The Jews see their own doom coming, and they believe that they can be saved only if the fairest and purest one of their women is sent to Holofernes to plead to spare them. They pick

Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Christian Old Testament of the Bible but Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, excluded from the ...

, a 20-year-old virgin, who is beautiful, brilliant and wealthy. Judith doesn’t want to go as she thinks the mission she’s being sent on is ridiculous and based on superstition. But confronted with the possibility that her country might be destroyed, she agrees to try it. However, a captain in the Israelite army named John wants to marry her, so he sends a prostitute, who will pretend to be Judith, to Holofernes. But Judith arrives at Holofernes’ tent first. One of Holofernes’ officers, Egon, a pederast, is persuaded by the prostitute to disguise himself as Holofernes. Judith is taken in by this trick, and feels humiliation and failure. Holofernes finally arrives, but Judith is not able to make her plea to spare her fellow Israelites. Holofernes attempts to seduce Judith, and she agrees to go to his bed, then kills and beheads him there.

Original productions

''Judith'' was translated into English by John K. Savacool, in ''The Modern Theatre'', ed. Eric Bentley, vol. 3 (1955), and by

Christopher Fry Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially '' The Lady's Not for Burning'', which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Biograp ...

, in ''The Drama of Jean Giraudoux'', vol. 1 (1963). ''Judith'' was first performed on 4 November 1931 in Paris at the

Théâtre Pigalle The Théâtre Pigalle () was a theatre in Paris, located in the rue Pigalle in the ninth ''arrondissement''. History Opened on June 20, 1929, financed by Philippe de Rothschild on the estate of his father Henri de Rothschild, the Rothschilds' ...

in a production by

Louis Jouvet Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet (; 24 December 1887 – 16 August 1951) was a French actor, theatre director and filmmaker. Early life Jouvet was born in Crozon. He had a Stuttering, stutter as a young man and originally trained as a pharmac ...

.Inskip, Donald, (1958), ''Jean Giraudoux, The Making of a Dramatist'', p. 182, Oxford University Press, New York.

References

External links

* Plays by Jean Giraudoux 1931 plays Cultural depictions of Judith Plays based on the Old Testament {{1930s-play-stub