Les Avariés

Les Avariés ("The damaged") is a French play in three acts by Eugène Brieux (1858–1932)[1].

The original text

A controversial drama about the social consequences of syphilis, it was banned by the censor, due to its medical details of syphilis, and was therefore first read privately by the author at the Théâtre Antoine in 1901. The ban was later lifted. Published in Paris by P-V Stock in 1902.

Performed in Brussels in 1910.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English as Damaged Goods by John Pollock (1878-)[] and by Brentanos, New York for the the Connecticut Society of Social Hygiene, with a foreword by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), in 1912 (c1911). It was soon banned in England and thus first produced to acclaim at the Fulton Theatre, New York on March 14, 1913, for the Connecticut Society of Social Hygiene, and also played in Washington.

The play was finally produced as a private performance by the Authors' Producing Society in England at the Little Theatre, on the 16th February, 1914, followed by a further series of performances at the Court Theatre in March.

The text was also published in Australia by W.C. Penfold, Sydney (1914), and later also by Jonathan Cape (1943).

The play was novelized in English("with the approval of the author") by Upton Sinclair and published by C. Winston, Philadelphia, as Damaged Goods: The great play "Les avariés" of Brieux (copyright 1913).

Filmed four times as Damaged Goods: the first directed by Tom Ricketts (1914), followed by Alexander Butler (1919), Edgar G. Ulmer (1933) and Phil Goldstone (1937).