Words of wisdom and wit
23 February 2023
Play in four acts.
First unique performance at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo (December 9, 1926), and immediate revival in Paris at the Théâtre des Arts (December 21, 1926). The play was published in bookstores under its first title: Phaéton.
Original Edition
- Paris, l’illustration, 1937, under the title Phaéton.
- Paris, Fasquelle, 1954, under the title Jazz.
Main performers at the creation
- Harry Baur : Blaise
- Pierre Blanchar : The young man
- Marc Valbel : Stéfanovitch
- Orane Demazis : Cécile
Summary
Blaise is a true scholar who has devoted the best years of his life to a work that he believed to be important, then discovers too late the vanity of his work, the uselessness of his sacrifice, and tries in vain to live his youth, when it is no longer time.
Ah! the body! the joy of the young curves, the easy harmony of the movements!
O my friends, there was more intelligence and poetry in the ankle of a virgin than under the inflated skull of Sully Prudhomme.
If there are some among you who are unable to live, let them continue their studies, let them become teachers, lawyers, writers; after all, my literary culture is a means of existence authorized by the law, and there must be a few lamp-makers in the world… But let them know that repairing lamps is not the goal in life. It’s a job.
The purpose of life is elsewhere, and all the joys it offers us are in our flesh. As for the others, I tell them this: if you can forge a pickaxe, build a wall, knead a loaf of bread, go and work, and do something useful.
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