La voix humaine

La voix humaine ("The Human Voice") is a French monodrama by Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)[1]

The original text

Written in 1928, it was first staged at the Comédie-Française in 1930.

Set in Paris, it is a play about a woman who is on the phone with her lover of the last five years. He is to marry another woman the next day, which causes her to despair. The monologue triggers the woman's crippling depression.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English as The Human Voice by Carl Wildman and published by Vision Press in 1951. Performed 2nd – 20th July 1952, Torch Theatre, Knightsbridge, London.

Translated into English as The Human Voice by Anthony Wood and published by Samuel French in 1992.

Translated into Dutch as De Menselijke Stem (inter alia by Marcel Sijm)[2]

Translated into Afrikaans as Die Stem van die Mens by an unknown translator.

Adapted as a TV movie by Clive Exton in 1966, directed by Ted Kotcheff and featuring Ingrid Bergman[3]

Adapted as a 40-minute, one-act opera for soprano and orchestra composed by Francis Poulenc in 1958.

Performance history in South Africa

1976: Ruth Oppenheim appeared in The Human Voice at the Pieter Roos Teater in Johannesburg.

1995: The Poulenc opera presented at the Cape Town Opera Festival starring Hannah van Niekerk with piano accompaniement by Albie van Skalkwyk.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Voice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Cocteau

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20220126_93665579

https://www.alliance-francaise.nl/gfx/101/File/LaVoix_De_Tekst%20(2).pdf

https://theatricalia.com/person/t3p/carl-wildman

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061794/

A photocopy of the published text, found in the Stellenbosch Drama Department's theatre archives and now held in the ESAT repository at the Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation, with offices at Pieter Okkers House, 7 Joubert Street, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

'Capab splashes out on opera'. Mail & Guardian. 20 January 1995.

Go to ESAT Bibliography