Les Parents terribles

Cocteau, Jean. Éditions Gallimard, 1956. Softbound. French. Wonderful author-created cover to this Gallimard Livre de poche, with expressive lettering and papercut profiles to both front and back, forming a suggestion of symmetry divided by the spine: one mask employing slightly softer lines (Thalia) and the other more angular (Melpomene). According to Cocteau, Les Parents terribles is an exercise in balancing conflicting tones; his intent was to generate tragedic resonance in a setting that frequently borders on vaudevillian. The play's initial run was halted when public outrage rose in reaction to plans to hold a free production for schoolchildren, and three years later, during the French occupation, a revival was interrupted by the throwing of tear-gas bombs and the release of rats into the theater. Cocteau later adapted the script into a 1948 film which frequently utilizes forceful close-ups, a technique the writer/director relished in contrast to the distancing constraints of the stage, saying, 'I wanted to put my eye to the keyhole and surprise [the actors] with a telescopic lens.'