- Le voyageur sans bagage
"Le voyageur sans bagage" ("The Traveller Without Luggage") is a 1937 play in five acts by
Jean Anouilh .Plot
At the end of the
First World War , Gaston hasamnesia . He resides at a hospital working as a gardener. He is claimed as a son by various families, and at the beginning of the play by the Renaud family. A docile character, Gaston discovers his former identity of Jacques Renaud: a cruel and violent young man. He has difficulty reconciling his current personality with that of his past. His brother's wife, Valentine, (with whom he had an affair), proves that he must be Jacques Renaud by telling him about a scar he has. After this corroboration, he decides to refute the reality of his identity and becomes a member of a family whose only member is a young boy.Inspiration
The play was inspired by the story of an amnesiac soldier, Anthelme Mangin who was claimed by over a dozen families. [Jean Yves Le Naour, "Le Soldat inconnu vivant", 2002.]
Reception
The play was Anouilh's first critical success, and helped his career as a playwright flourish.
Adaptations
The play has been adapted twice - firstly as a film in 1944, directed by Anouilh himself, and secondly in 2004 as a
television film directed byPierre Boutron .References
*reflist
*Anouilh, Jean, "Le voyageur sans bagage". Paris: Folio, 2002.External links
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