Incident At Vichy
Encyclopedia
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
focusing upon the subjects of human nature, guilt, fear, and complicity using Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
for the setting. Miller, a Jew himself, wrote the one act play about a group of detainees waiting for inspection by German officers during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The play premiered on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on December 3, 1964 at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre
ANTA Washington Square Theatre
The ANTA Washington Square Theatre was a small theatre located on 40 West 4th St., in Greenwich Village, in New York City, and run by the American National Theater and Academy . The theater was located away from the mainstream Broadway district, and was originally designed as a prototype for the...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The production closed on May 7, 1965 after a total of 32 performances. The cast included Michael Strong
Michael Strong
Michael Strong was an American stage, film and television actor.He was born Cecil Natapoff in New York City and had extensive stage experience. He was a member of the Actors Studio. Among his film credits are Point Blank, Patton, and The Great Santini...
as LeBeau, Stanley Beck
Stanley Beck
Stanley Beck is an American film producer and actor of the stage, television, and film. As an actor he is best known for his portrayal of Stanly in the 1969 film John and Mary and Artie Silver in the 1974 film Lenny...
as Bayard, Paul Mann as Marchand, and David J. Stewart
David J. Stewart
David J. Stewart was an American Broadway, film, and television actor.Born Abe J. Siegel in Omaha, Nebraska, Stewart was known primarily as a New York stage actor...
as Monceau. A revised version of the script was prepared in 1966 and was used in a film version.
The main question of the play is how the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust, to answer the question that has haunted people since World War II: why did the Jews walk to their deaths, why was there so little resistance?
Cast
- Lebeau, a painter
- Bayard, an electrician
- Marchand, a businessman
- Police Guard (French)
- Monceau, an actor
- Gypsy
- Waiter
- Boy
- Major (German Army)
- First Detective (French)
- Old Jew
- Second Detective (French)
- Leduc, a psychiatrist
- Police Captain (French)
- Von Berg, a prince (Austrian)
- Professor Hoffman (a Nazi)
- Ferrand, a café proprietor
- Four Prisoners
None of the characters in the play are referred to by name at any time, except for Von Berg and Ferrand.
Synopsis and themes
The first half of the play revolves around the characters' struggle to accept why they are there. All of the detainees except for a gypsy, Von Berg, and (possibly) Bayard are Jewish, and most have fled to Vichy from the German-occupied northern half of France. Nevertheless, they persist in allowing themselves a state of denial about the motivations for their arrests and the fate that awaits them. Lebeau, Monceau, and Marchand all grasp for explanations: "It must be a routine document check." Bayard, who may or may not be Jewish, is an outspoken Communist who warns the detainees about trains going to Nazi concentration camps in Germany and Poland and reports of mass killings. He enjoins the detainees to develop political consciousness so as to make an intellectual, albeit private, stand against the pressure of detention. "My faith is in the future; and the future is Socialist. ... They can't win. Impossible."The second half of the play shows the various characters' reaction to their situation: Leduc, a psychoanalyst
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
who is also a French veteran of the 1940 fighting against Germany, tries to rally the prisoners to attempt an escape. However, the other able-bodied prisoners prefer to hope for the best, rejecting Bayard's warnings.
In this way, the play's central lesson is how the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust, how they were able to get away with it for so long. The café proprietor Ferrand notably does nothing to intervene on behalf of his friend the Waiter with the interrogators. The main confrontation in the second half is between Leduc and the Major, a disabled veteran of the German Army, as Leduc tries to persuade the Major to let them go free. The Major resents his assignment, thinking it beneath the dignity of a regular Army officer, but ultimately resigns himself to it, feeling himself entrapped within the chain of command. Furthermore, he feels that whether or not he helps the detainees to escape is irrelevant: "There are no persons anymore." The future which the Major sees is an authoritarian mass society where human beings are insignificant.
In the 1964 version, there is no real attempt at escape on the part of the prisoners as a whole. At the end, Von Berg secures a free pass from the guards, but then attempts to give it to Leduc, volunteering his life to help Leduc escape. In the 1966 version there is a major escape attempt in the middle of the play, but it is thwarted by the unexpected appearance of the Major. Since the objective of the piece is to show how the Nazis managed to make the Holocaust happen, this escape attempt may be viewed as seriously undermining the play's theme.
Revivals
The play received its first professional New York revival in the spring of 2009 by the Off-BroadwayOff-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
group The Actors Company Theatre (TACT).
A key theme within the play is the right of life. Toward the end of the play, the major returns to the stage intoxicated and discusses the moral implications of what is going on in Germany. The major is under the gun of those above him in the chain of command and if he does not carry out the commands of his superiors he too will be on the chopping block and the execution of Jews will continue and the paradox paralyzes those who have a moral compass and value their own lives.
Ultimately, Von Berg takes the action few other people not condemned by the Germans were willing to take and sacrifices his own freedom for the freedom of a Jew, knowing that there was little chance either of them would survive. He did this because accepting the status quo was unsuccessful in changing the Nazi system and until Germans were forced to kill their own they would continue to justify their actions.
See also
- Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, the mass arrestMass arrestA mass arrest occurs when the police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at illegal protests. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort combat gang activity. This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result...
and deportation of Jews in Paris that took place around the time in which the play is set - Drancy internment campDrancy internment campThe Drancy internment camp of Paris, France, was used to hold Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps. 65,000 Jews were deported from Drancy, of whom 63,000 were murdered including 6,000 children...
, where French detainees were temporarily housed en route to concentration camps - Maurice PaponMaurice PaponMaurice Papon was a French civil servant, industrial leader and Gaullist politician, who was convicted for crimes against humanity for his participation in the deportation of over 1600 Jews during World War II when he was secretary general for police of the Prefecture of Bordeaux.Papon also...
, who as prefect of BordeauxBordeauxBordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
was a significant collaborationist who helped administer "dejudaisation" in his region - The Holocaust in art and literatureThe Holocaust in art and literatureThere is a wide range of ways in which people have represented the Holocaust in popular culture.-Literature:Some of the more famous works are by Holocaust survivors or victims, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, Jerzy Kosinski , Imre Kertész, Jean Améry, Edgar Hilsenrath, Anne...
External links
- Incident at Vichy at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Synopsis of the play