Jean Anouilh, the most popular French playwright in the mid-20th century, equally successful in Paris and London, has been shamefully ignored for far too long. So I was thrilled to learn the Donmar was to stage Le Voyageur sans baggage. Sadly, Welcome Home, Captain Fox! is not a translation but an adaptation.
18 years after World War 1 has ended a war veteran still does not know who he is or was. His family (who had believed he had died in the war) instantly recognizes him as their lost son. But he does not recognize them and is appalled to learn that when he was a young man he was not a nice person at all. He killed birds and animals for fun. He stole money from his mother. He had an affair with his brother’s wife. He raped the maid. As he learns more and more about his past life, it becomes clear to him that there is only one thing for him to do.
Anthony Weigh has taken the French tragedy and turned it into an American farce. The action is updated to the 1950’s and relocated in the Hampton’s. Blanche McIntyre’s production is entertaining and Katherine Kingsley. Danny Webb and Sian Thomas are often very amusing. But why not to do the piéce noire Anouilh actually wrote and which made his name in 1937? The drama no longer has the stark inevitability of a Greek tragedy (which Anouilh cleverly subverts) and the amnesiac hero (Rory Keenan) is now a much more superficial character.