AN ANALYSES OF JEAN GERAUDOUX'S JUDITH

FOR AN ARENA PRODUC'HON

Thai: for the Doom of M. A.
MUCHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
R, .Vance Paui
1966

 

 

THESIS
LIBRARY

Michigan State ‘
University

 

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ABSTRACT
AN ANALXSIS OF JEAN GIRAUDOUX'S JUDITH
FOR AN ARENA PRODUCTION

by R. Vance Paul

The purpose of this study was to set down in
written form an analysis of Jean Giraudoux's play
Judith. This analysis was employed in the directing
of the play for arena production. What has been pre-
sented is a personal interpretation and discernment of
the play.

Chapter One is an analysis of the play Judith.
What has been attempted is an eXplanation of character,
character relationships, plot, theme and philosophic
concepts.

The Second Chapter contains the director's
script including changes in lines, diagrams of the floor
plans and lighting plots.

Chapter three contains an analysis of the phy-
sical production: the setting, lighting, costumes, make-
up, and music.

Chapter Four contains a critical appraisal of
those aspects of the production where weaknesses were

perceived regarding the actors, director, and play-

wright.
The final Chapter includes the critical reviews

of the production of Judith from the local newspapers.

Approved

 

AN ANALXSIS OF JEAN GIRAUDOUX'S JUDITH
FOR AN ARENA PRODUCTION

By

R. VANCE PAUL

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Speech

1966

 

Judith: ”Judith! I'm beginning to see
what this girl Judith is like.
Ah, but how I'd like to know what
she is really thinking about be-
hind this mask of flesh."

111

ACKNOWLEDGLENTS

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mr. Frank
C. Rutledge for his aid, supervision of production, and
assistance in the writing of this thesis. Further
recognition is due to Dr. E. C. Reynolds and Mr.
Anthony Collins for their advice and suggestions con-
cerning the production and thesis.

Acknowledgment is also made to Mr. Allen'White
and Miss Barbara Hummel for their technical assistance;
Mr. Michael Bloom for his assistance in costuming the
show; and a final thanks goes to the cast and crews of

Judith for their excellent contributions.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
FRONTISPIECE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CHAPTER II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
CHAPTER III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
CHAPTER IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
CHAPTER V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1&3
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Figure

10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Judith . . . . . . .

Judith and Little Jacob

Judith and Joseph .
Judith and John . .
Judith and Susanna .
Egon and Sarah . . .
Holofernes . . . . .
Joachim . . . . . .
Guard and Judith . .

Floor Plan - Act I

Floor Plan - Act II

and

Construction Drawings .

Instrument Sheet .
Dimmer Sheet . . .

Lighting Plot . . .

vi

Page
Frontispiece

. . . . 5h
. . . . 56
. . . . 62
. . . . 71
. . . . 80
. . . . 9O
. . . . 110
. . . . 118
. . . . 122
. . . . 12H
. . . . 126
. . . . 128
. . . . 129
. . . . 130

INTRODUCTION

There is frequently worth in the study of men
who greatly influence and shape areas of the theatre.
There is even more worth to a study if the researcher
can present a new insight into a playwright and his
thoughts through study of the playwright and through
the production of one of his plays. Jean Giraudoux is
one playwright who has contributed to and greatly in-
fluenced modern theatre. Giraudoux's distinctiveness
and talent have set him high above and apart from the
mediocre.1 This truth satisfies one of the factors to
be considered when selecting a play to be directed in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for a production
thesis for the degree of Master of Arts at Michigan
State University. Other factors to consider are: the
play must be full length, it must contribute to a sea-
son's program, and it must be acceptable to the faculty.

The purpose of this study is to present an
analysis of Jean Giraudoux's play Judith. This analysis
was employed in the directing of the play for arena

production. What is being presented is a personal

 

1Laurent LeSage, Jean Giraudoux: His Life and
Works (Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1959), p. 210.

interpretation and vision of the play.

Judith is not one of Jean.Giraudoux's best plays,
but one that does possess merit.2 The play leads the
viewer into the world of Giraudoux to bring forth those
aspects and essences that typify the man and that are
seen in his other works. There are certain themes that
continually appear in Giraudoux's plays that are of
literary note and demand exposure. These provoke
thought and evoke endless treatises, they also seen to
have universal appeal.

Giraudoux uses the play Judith to develOp cer-
tain ideas. He contemplates the disparity that exists
between the ideal and the real worlds. Giraudoux pre-
sents the universe as man—centered and that man's place
is to dedicate himself to this universe and to those who
exist within it. Giraudoux's utopia implies that man
lives fully and freely according to his nature with this
special Delphic restraint, know the limits of human
nature; forget not the need for moderation and Justice.
God exists in a secondary role; Giraudoux attests the
existence of unseen forces that determine movement of
history, but these forces keep their distances and only
on occasion condescend to raise havoc.

Giraudoux is indeed an exceptional artist and

 

2
Gerald Weales, "Virtue Rewarded," The Reporter,
XXXII, No. 9 (May 6, 1965). pp. 38-39.

to discuss and perform one of his literary creations

may be a small contribution to the field of drama.

CHAPTER I

Like many plays by Jean Giraudoux, Judith has
been created from a source, this one being Biblical.
Like other sources, the story of Judith has come under
Giraudoux's prismatic effect: a simple story becomes
diffracted into a spectrum of closely related intellec-
tual digressions. Self-sacrifice, tribal sacrifice, the
act of sacrificing is Giraudoux's point of diffraction;
a spectrum of philosophical comment is the result. And
it is Giraudoux's unique power to disperse a rainbow of
intellectual fascination from an earthbound story that
makes him great and also makes him a special challenge
to the producer.

The familiar story of Judith is a convenient
starting point for Giraudoux. It eliminates any pre-
occupation with plot, allowing the author to concentrate
on character and especially idea. Although the ideas
rely largely on character for their exposition, through
dialogue and the very nature of the characters, charac-
ter is subordinated to idea. Giraudoux's greatest pre-
occupation is with philosophical comment through well-
chosen imagery; the characters are vehicles to this end.

Consequently, there are potential problems intrinsic in

u

the main structure of the play.

It becomes tempting to produce Judith with the
characters subordinated to the meat of Giraudoux's
thought. To do so, however, would not do Giraudoux
Justice, or aim for his full magnitude. It may be true
that Giraudoux's characters suffer from his primary
focus on idea rather than character development; but,
whatever the consensus, it cannot be denied that his
characters are dramatically interesting and many times
poetic. They are not merely mouths for Giraudoux's
meditations; they are real, human, forceful. And to
ignore the human, universal aspect of Giraudoux's
characters is to deny the necessity for sinew because
it is the force of Giraudoux's characters that give
added force to his ideas. His characters sublimate his
ideas.

The dialogue in.Judith is alive with Giraudoux's
gifted use of language, sound and metaphor. One problem
with the script is met at the onset by those who are not
familiar with French. No matter how excellent the per-
former's translation, the script still remains a trans-
lation and not wholly the work of Giraudoux. Those not
instructed in French are left to trust in the transla-
tor. While the problem of translation may be secondary
in other foreign works, it is primary in.Giraudoux not

only because one of the main attributes of the play is

lost, the beauty of language, but also because Giraudoux
has such a great love for fantasy and is many times
ambiguous.

The answer to the translation problem is lucid
enough after a careful reading of a good script. There
may be many excellent qualities eradicated in transla-
tion, but there remains a certain artistry in individual
characterization, idea and metaphor which makes the play
meritous. The well-drawn metaphor in French can be as
exquisite in.English, Holofernes' speeches being pro-
bably the best examples. Giraudoux's philosophies and
ideas are also clear enough in the English transla-
tions. It does make it difficult, however, to interpret
characterization when one cannot rely on the author's
exact words. The interpretation of Judith's role pre-
sents the biggest problem and it is here especially where
one feels that ambiguity may be due to translation.

The rest of the characters in Judith are clear
after careful study of the text. They are, for the most
part, straightforward characterizations. To begin.with,
Joachim, the High Priest and Grand Rabbi of Israel, is
clearly an anti-cleric characterization. There is no
holy aura surrounding this man, indeed he negates the
existence of God many times. The first character he
encounters is Joseph, who is ineffectual in his attempts

to save his niece.

Joseph: Joachim, you shall not do this to her.

Joachim: Shall not! What shall not the High Priest
do to Judith?

Joseph: Transform a simple girl into a tribal
saint for the crowd to sob over.

Joachim: That, Joseph, is for the peOple of Israel
to decide. And today Israel speaks with
the voice of the prOphets. Indeed, for
lack of bread, prophecy is all our people

have to live on.
The prophecy to which Joachim refers is a prOphecy con-
cocted by men in time of need. He does not say that
God has chosen Judith, it is the people that have chosen
her. Judith is their hope, Judith is all they have left.

Joseph: Joachim, you are a rabbi, I am a banker.
Don't talk prophecy to me. Let's call it
by its name: mass hysteria.

Joseph has no concern for the "mob" the “masses" and

his is the traditional aristocratic view: they aren't
worth saving. He especially does not want his niece
sacrificed to them. When.he singles himself and Joachim
out as a rabbi and a banker, he is trying to appeal to
Joachim as a member of the upper strata of society. He
is saying that they know better, they know it will not
be for God that Judith is sacrificed, but for the masses.
In a previous dialogue with John, Joseph has given his
opinion of the peOple of Israel.

Joseph: Other tribes can eat candy or chew gum.
But not Israel! The children of Israel
eternally need a proper name to suck on.
It gives us an excuse for minding someone
else's business. If our people are pious,
John, it's because piety gives them an

excuse for telling God how to run the
world.

It is not that Joseph wouldn't allow his niece to sacri-
fice herself if God had singled her out; it is that the
prophecy has been created by "manure piles" who want a
prOper name attached to their meddling.

As an emissary of the people, Joachim views the
same sacrificial act in.very different eyes.

Joachim: Am I to believe that on your shoulders
sits the only clear head in the city?

Joseph: Yes - unless you are a hypocrite.

Joachim: And what is i you se standing between
your family and the certain massacre that
will fall on us tomorrow morning - be-
cause you must realize that your niece
will be brutalized with the rest? I
suppose you see what the bourgeoisie
always looks for when courage fails and
calamity threatens - a miracle! The dead
rising from the battlefield and angels
descending from heaven with swords of
lightning to rout the enemy!

Joseph: If you like. Let's wait for the miracle.

Joachim: We need wait no longer! The miracle is
at hand. After two months of blind
martyrdom, our city has heard the name of
your niece. And we blind martyrs now see
an end of our ordeal.

Joseph serves as a strong contrast to Joachim. To
Joseph, Joachim is a hypbcrite, because he will create
a lie and present it as divine prOphecy. But to Joachim
the very idea of waiting for an actual miracle is not
only naive, but absurd. There is no divine prophecy.
God does not intercede into man's life.

The entire beginning of the first act has been
devoted to a despicable mass of peOple awaiting an end

to their miseries. Their only strength is their

numbers. Nothing counteracts that impression until
Joachim makes his entrance and presents a case for the
people's needs. John, Joseph and the servants view the
people as odious. Joseph provides final focus to this
idea and once his function is concluded he makes his
exit and never reappears.

Joachim derives his power from the peOple, and
the people look to him for leadership. He must use
Judith to give the people strength and faith. To Joachim
the time is psychologically right for Judith to go to
Holofernes, the time is psychologically right for the
people to accept fully Judith as a saint, a savior, and
to accept a miracle. He knows that if a miracle is to
occur, it will have to occur by his hand, through his
instigation, because he is the one who planted the seed.
This is Joachim's creation, not God's. There are no
divine flashes from heaven; there is no intervention by
God. Indeed, Joachim's God seems to be whatever the
people need. God is equated with the peOple's need and
Joachim is certain of his duty to the people.

Joachim: The people have chosen.Judith to be their
miracle, and the more I hear her name the
more I believe in Judith. . . . Once I
despaired to see how Judith thrives on
this adulation. Today I rejoice. For,
it is thanks to this weakness that our
Judith will consent to give herself to
God!

He is thankful for her weakness because it will enable

him to manuever her into performing his will. He

10

rejoices to have his task made easier. Judith enters
and Joseph leaves telling Judith to beware of Joachim -
and God

Joseph: Don't trust him, Judith. Don't trust

Joachim tonight.

Judith: Tonight there is no Joachim. Tonight

there is only Judith and God.

Joseph: Don't trust God either. Not even.God!
Joachim has observed Judith closely and will manipulate
her for his needs by taking advantage of her need for
adulation.

Joachim's first appeal to Judith is through God.
Contrary to the expedient, divine businessman of the
previous dialogue with Joseph, Joachim musters up a
holy aura. Both Joachim and his God are chameleonic and
Joseph's warning was Justified.

Joachim: Judith! God is indeed in this room
tonight.

The only presence in the room, however, is Joachim's,
and Judith flatly rejects the prophecy. A debate ensues
between Judith and Joachim, and as Joachim pleads God's
case, Judith makes replies that are haughty, insulting,
and cynical. When little Jacob enters, she uses him to
try to dissuade Joachim. Little Jacob returns the apple
she has given him, and Judith demands that Joachim "find
someone else," but it appears that Joachim has already
tried to find someone, and his results were negative.
Joachim: I have seen that girl. It's true her name

is Judith, but she is blind in one eye and
there are open sores on her face.

11

So it seems that this is Joachim's final chance to
produce a miracle. He recruits Judith or he fails.
Joachim's spiritual appeal to Judith brings no
results. His next appeal is patriotic and for the deg-
perate state of the army. Judith says she has heard that
Holofernes' army is so low on munitions that they are
melting down jewels. It seems that Joachim has also
been at the bottom of this prophetic news.
Joachim: Yes, I've heard the story. In fact, I
was the one who put it into circulation.
The truth is, Judith, we are the ones who
have no more weapons.
He tells her that the army no longer exists, and she
still does not believe him. Then, when he sees John
appear in the courtyard, another avenue of appeal is

opened.

Joachim: Would you rather hear it from a soldier?
John, for instance?

With John's assistance and Joachim's knowledge of Judith,
the task becomes easy. John will become Joachim's wedge.
His final appeal will be personal.

Judith: It's no use. I still won't believe you.

Joachim: ‘Would you believe him? You.know him well,

of course?

Judith: Yes, I know him well.

Joachim: 'You are engaged I suppose?

Judith: What if we are?
Joachim sends for John, and Judith thinks that she will
prove, once and for all, that she is not the Judith in
the prOphecy by having John be witness that she is the

most pleasure-loving girl in the city. Judith welcomes

12

John as support to prove her unworthiness, that she is
“slightly soiled." Ironically enough, John unknowingly
comes to Joachim's aid. Joachim realizes that the only
effective appeal to Judith is personal, selfish.

Joachim: If it's because of John that you are hesi-
tating, I know how to convince you.

Judith: Convince me of what?

Joachim: Of your duty to become a saint.

From Joachim's vieWpoint Judith's duty, like his, is to
answer the needs of the people. His attitude is more
obvious in Act III. Joachim is not interested in their
personal relationship, he has other uses for John. It
is through John that he will reach Judith, but not
through any love the couple share. John.will be a tool
to arouse Judith's extreme pride and susceptibility to
humiliation. She has already admitted their close
relationship. The defeat of the army made no difference
to Judith, but to make this defeat touch Judith in any
way, especially through a man she has singled out as
someone special, will bring results for Joachim. Joachim
is wily, quick and precise.

Joachim: John, is it true that this morning what
was left of our city guard mutinied against
its officers and surrendered to the enemy?

Judith: That's a lie!

Joachim: Is it a lie that at noon our sacred
battalion fled in panic and left its flag
on the ground for all to see - lying in
the sun outside the city walls?

Judith: False! I know it's false!

Joachim: Is it false that the only trOOps left to
defend the city are two companies of old
men recently pressed into the service?

13

Answer me!

Judith: Well, answer him! One word will do it.

John: Don't be cruel.

Judith: Cruel! Where were my eyes? I don't need
an answer. It is written on your face.

Certainly Judith must feel some humiliation with the
defeat of her countrymen, but it is as if Joachim has
made John personally responsible. Judith turns on.John
to vent her disgust at defeat. A jab at Judith's pride
reaps results for Joachim. He remains silent through her
tirades and speaks only to offer Judith a chance to
restore her wounded pride.

Joachim: Enough, my son. Tonight Judith is the
first soldier of the city in our first
line of battle.

And she accepts the chance Joachim offers because
suddenly Judith visualizes herself as God's savior.

Judith: Yes, God still has Judith.

And suddenly she sees herself as the savior of her
country as well.

Judith: Is it a crime to insist that Israel be
the name for a race of conquerors? Is
it my fault if you heroes are too weak
to defend our honor and pass the sword
to a woman?

She envisions herself not as saving old men, women and
children from being massacred, but as leading a race of
conquerors. Judith is not the commanding, victorious
girl she thinks she is for Joachim has neatly obtained

her consent to a mission she knows is a fraud. He has

dressed up the act sufficiently to appeal to her tastes.

1h

Judith's forthcoming sacrificial act in the name of
religion and country is really an act for personal grati-
fication. Giraudoux's position on sacrifice is clear.
The nature of Joachim's character rounds off a
whole series of connecting ideas which reflect the
author's attitude toward prophecy, the clergy and miracles.
It is established that the rabbi and the prophet are not
executioners of God's will, they are executioners of man's
will, perhaps because they are human and respond mostly
to their needs as men. It must be clearly understood
that Joachim has not forced himself on the peOple, but
rather the people have demanded the existence of Joachim.
The miracle which is so desperately needed is a miracle
created not by God but by man. And it is a special
aspect of mankind that demands miracles and prophecy, a
reliance on strength outside of itself. The city is in
a state of decadence with soldiers who have fancy uni-
forms but lack the courage and will to fight, Joachim's
description of the flight of the sacred battalion attest
to that. The people in the city are starving, waiting
for prophecies to be fulfilled.
John: Then you saw them too, huddled in groups
at the street corners. The same hysterical
old men. The same scab-studded crones
that huddle together everytime the peOple
smell a miracle in the making.
It is a weak, hysterical kind of old man that calls for

miracles because they have nothing left to rely on. They

15

are pitiful, dying, and despicable. Since they cannot
act to save themselves, they become parasitic.

Servant: The city is full of them. Dying dogs
attract flies. But when it's a city
that's sick and dying, then the scaven-
gers are called prophets and the buzzing
is called prophecy.

They are parasites, living off a sick and dying carcass.
It is midst desperation, filth and death that prophecy

is created, created by man from a trash pile of his own
making. And it is during these occasions that the priest
reigns.

John: In times of death and famine, reason is
on the side of the priests - who have their
own kind of logic which cries for miracles
and, on occasion, invents them.

Undoubtedly the priest has no concern with the
veracity of occurrences. He is there to give certifi-
cates, credance to the lies men need in order to exist
when their own courage and strength have failed. The
desperation of the city is real and terrifying in the
beginning of the first act, and it is in these circum-
stances that Joachim must perform his duty. Whether he
relishes his job or not is never made clear, indeed for
Giraudoux, it is of no significance. Joachim must do
what he must do. In performing his duty he is conniving,
fanse, cruel, and effective, but he is not a villain.

He is not a villain because he is fulfilling the needs

of the "scab-studded old crones," who are symbolically

16

man in his most despicable, desperate situations. It is
man who is villainous because he not only relies on
miracles, but accepts the shams that are presented to
him draped in holy pretense. For Giraudoux, however,
villainous is too strong a word. Man is not villainous,
he simply has eternal weaknesses which one must expect.
They are not eradicable, but they must be exposed for
what they are. Joachim, then, epitomizes one of man's
inventions to save himself. What makes his fraudulency
so poignant is his premeditation and cold organization.
He decorates the sham with psalm singing and holy
glitter. At the end of Act III Joachim is reduced to the
lowest kind of bribery.

Joachim: On.what conditions will you live and hold
your tongue?

He is well aware that Judith's motives for killing Holo-

fernes have not been holy. In fact he does not even

care what her motives were; it makes little difference

to him at this point since he has achieved his goal.

Joachim: Why you think you killed him. But what

you think doesn't matter now. My dear
girl, the point is that the deed is done.
. . . and done just the way the church
predicted it.

Joachim has prepared a holy chant which the ages can

repeat, a spiritual cheerleading to give the team hOpe

when none exists. Man's salvation is a fraudulent one

because it is the product of minds that are tortured

17

and desperate. Joachim personifies man's perpetuation
of this kind of fraud.

A portrayal of Joachim demands subtlety and pre-
cision. Joachim is a keen observer and because of this
talent he is a great manipulator. Unemotional and with
a strong sense of duty, his is a cold and precise
intelligence. He operates on a plane where the usual
morality does not exist. What motivates Joachim is his
sense for what the people need. Right and wrong are
gauged according to their effect on the people. His
morality is relative, and socially, not spiritually,
oriented. He must not appear villainous though, because
he believes he is doing the right thing and it is this
latter fact that makes him frightening. His acts are
odious enough to speak for themselves.

It is into an atmosphere of counterfeit prophecy
that Judith makes her first entrance. Although she is
extremely attractive, she is a child, a young girl.

She is full of energy and quick with words. There is a
strong contrast between Judith and Joachim: Joachim has
a calculating and cold intelligence and although Judith
is quick with words, she rarely uses her intelligence.
She is guided by her imagination and emotion. What moti-
vates Judith is her sense of pleasure. Her sense of
pleasure is very narrowly refined into a classic flaw.

Judith derives her greatest satisfaction from adulation.

18

She is selfish and proud. Egon in Act II refers to her
as a ”cannibal of pride” and this is indeed what she is.
She consumes everything around her. There are no restric-
tions to her appetite or her capacity; consequently, she
lives in a superhuman world where fantasies must be ful-
filled. And it is when obstacles encumber these fantasies
that Judith reacts like a rebuffed child.

To Judith, Joachim presents just such an obstacle.
The prophecy excites her imagination, but she mentally re-
jects the existence of Joachim.

Judith: Tonight there is no Joachim. Tonight
there is only Judith and God.

She is angry with Joachim because she holds him per-
sonally responsible for the absence of divine flashes
from heaven. She is the child who has been left waiting
too long. She is impatient and rebellious.

Judith reveals in the next few lines that she
believes the prophecy, in spite of her disappointment
with the church and the 'rabbi's truth,” but she wants
the prophecy to occur the way she imagined it. She will
not accept sainthood from a Grand Rabbi or the masses
that have begun to worship her.

Judith: I repeat: to me it is their voice, not
Jehovah's, that I hear. And, I've been
listening. The tiniest of signs and I
would have been convinced.

Apparently Judith has learned her lessons well. God

must send her a special sign like He does in stories.

19

She, like the masses awaiting death in the streets,
needs extra-human deliverance from her human woes.

When.Judith enters in.Act I she is under the
spell of a religious daydream. The people in the streets,
the rabbis, and Joachim have been singing her praises.
She is envisioned by the people as a shining saint, a
savior, Psalms are being sung to her, people beg for
her help, their eyes are filled with adulation. They
have transformed her name into a prayer. This praising
of Judith has continued for two months. It appeals to
her imagination and her love for adulation.

Judith has a strong belief in God, the same God
who fires the imagination of the people of Israel, and it
is Joachim who helps to keep the fire glowing. Her be-
lief in God, like every other aspect of her character,
is based on a selfish dividend. She does not use God or
the church as a guide to her actions or development of her
character. There is nothing spiritual in her belief.

God can fulfill daydreams, fantasies. He is the magician
that can materialize Judith's superhuman ambitions.

Her interest and anxiety concerning the prophecy
equals that of Joachim and the peOple of Israel, and like
them, her interest is very personal, selfish, and has
nothing to do with saving a city or bolstering a peOple
in the depths of despair. The act of saving the city is
not that spectacular to Judith. She wants something more

20

imaginative.

Judith: Any woman with courage to do what you
prOpose would seem both beautiful and
pure. That's what the prophecy really
means.

She is not interested in what any courageous woman could
do in the name of beauty and purity. She is interested
in neither of these qualities since she has both and
already takes great pride in them. She is not quite
happy with the prophecy as it stands.

Judith's selfishness is evident in the way she
uses the people around her to her best advantage. Like
Joachim, she manipulates. She uses little Jacob against
Joachim to show her dissatisfaction. She wants to peal
away the false holiness of Joachim. She first does this
with little Jacob by trying to make him break the fast
and to show that it is the material things, the sensual
things, that drive people. She offers little Jacob a
crust of bread. When he refuses the bread and asks her
to give herself to Holofernes, she tries to ply him with
something more appetizing - meat - an apple. The boy
accepts the apple, but a little later he returns it.
Judith, too, will return the sensual gift, the fruit of
life from Holofernes. The people would not allow Jacob
to have the apple, as Joachim said they wouldn't. Doubt-
less at the beginning she was only going to offer him a

crust of bread, but when the boy repeats Joachim's

prophecy, which she bitterly says the boy has learned

21

well (she has swallowed the lesson too), the boy becomes

a means to vent her anger. The boy is a special challenge
because Joachim has had her mouth the same prOphecy with
no genuine results, and she wants to expose it, not be-
cause she doesn't believe it, but because it has not
occurred.

Judith is performing two purposes in this debate
with Joachim. She airs some of the tawdry functions of
the church in an almost playful way. This lightens the
tension that has been building since the beginning of the
act and also presents Giraudoux's comments in a light
rather than menacing way. The conversation also exposes
Judith for the spoiled child that she is. This technique,
although it serves Giraudoux's purpose, detracts from the
play. A serious problem becomes lightened in mood and
then in the next few lines, the problem is serious again.
These shifts in mood occur so quickly that the play
suffers dramatically, although it scores intellectually.
It can be a troublesome scene because of the intermingling
of light comedy with overall seriousness within a small
space.

As the scene continues, Judith nonchalantly re-
fuses the "sainthood" Joachim offers. She is not
interested in counterfeit sainthood. This conversation
becomes a match, just like the previous situation.with

little Jacob was a match, a possibility for her to parade

22

her superiority. To each of Joachim's remarks she has a
hostile answer, culminating in a final jab at the church.
Judith: And what about the working girls? The
church should be more democratic, Joachim.
Why don't you give a chance at glory to a

name like Cohan or Levy?

What other ulterior profit she expects from the
prophecy is not hinted at until she introduces the idea
of a young virgin confronting a giant. She says that
one night she dreamt she ”wrestled for hours with
Goliath." And in her dreams Goliath won. She is the
first to refer to Holofernes as a giant. Obviously she
hopes to be ”overtaken.” But the part she is to play in
the prophecy is appealing to her only if God singles her
out personally. Her anxiety over the prophecy is shown
when Judith's trips to the hospital, like everything else
she does, prove to be based on a purely selfish motive.

Judith: . . . I even provoked the wounded to make
them cry out. But when the words came
they were no more than the words of dying
men.

However splendid the fantasy is, it remains
fantasy for Judith because she is aware that she isn't
chaste in spirit and God has performed no divine antics
for her. In.her first meeting she denies the prephecy
because it has no signs of being fulfilled and she has
become impatient. But after the initial onslaught with
Joachim, she reveals what is really bothering her.

Joachim: What do you want? A burning bush?

23
Judith: A flash of warmth would do. Or a single
word. All day I've been listening for it.

For Judith the prOphecy has a dual fascination.
First of all, it is a fantasy she wishes were true and it
seems possible to her. And the one factor necessary for
a transition from fantasy to reality is some appearance
of God. God appears, and of all the people of Israel,
singles out Judith. This will be no ordinary occurrence.
As in religious stories, Judith awaits some spectacular
sign. The second fascination is sexual. Judith has not
given herself to anyone because she feels guilt, as John
attests, and because a special enough occasion has not
presented itself. But if God sends Judith on this mission
she has no reason to feel guilt and also the occasion
would be most magnificent. The sexual and the religious
become enmeshed and Giraudoux presents the same sacrifi-
cial act in slightly different focus.

It can be seen that Giraudoux rarely produces a
single strong focal point, more often there are two or
three points of view presented in the same scene. For
example, in the beginning of Act I the audience is pre-
sented with the very real and desperate state of Israel.
The people are wailing and helpless. They cannot save
themselves so they are willing for Judith to save them.
This same situation is presented from another point of
view through John and Joseph. The people in the streets

are not worth saving, they are little more than animals.

24

They are a tribe, a mob, the dregs of Israel. Once this
focus is established John exits and Joachim enters. The
debate between Joseph and Joachim is in the same serious
mood. Joachim is an intruder and he demands sacrifices
which no man has the right to ask from another. However,
here too, the focus is dual. There is Joseph who is try-
ing to protect his personal interests and Joachim.who is
the people's emissary. This dual and sometimes triple
focus is shown throughout the play.

Judith is a complicated mixture of virginity,
pride and religious fervor. She is restless, constantly
searching for something, and her changeable nature makes
her easily dissuaded from one goal to another. Her
motivation is not direct since she Operates wholly from
ulterior motives, and certain aspects of her character
are contradictory. She can see sharply, realistically
and yet a web of fantasy distorts her sight. She can see
through the church and the rabbi's adulterated truth, and
yet she believes them, or wants very much to believe them.
She knows the church is using her - yet she wants to be
used. She knows the truth from the beginning, but does
not admit it until Act III.

Judith: Your miracle is a fraud. God gave it to
you cheap with a minimum of innocence,
and all because I'm rich and spoiled and
my name is great enough to conceal the

deception.

Judith may be a virgin, but there is nothing

25

saintly about her virginity. She has remained a virgin
because of her pride, not because of any lack of desire.
She is passionate and sensual, but she clings to her vir-
ginity. John makes this clear when he tries to reveal
the prophecy as a fake.

John: Fairest daughter of Israel. Are you really
the fairest? So much of you is the re-
flection of gold and luxury that one never
knows what you are really like. Look at
her, Joachim! Look at her well, the
subtle dialation of the nostrils, the
blood beating at her temples. This girl
is the threshold of everything that is
passionately human and changing. Beauty
it is, but human beauty - beauty of the
moment.

This is hardly the description of a saint. As John tes-
tifies to her desire, Judith makes it clear that she has

not surrendered.

Judith: I suppose I surrendered?

John: No, indeed, you did not. 'You are not simp
ple enough for that. Everytime I approach
Judith, she musters a mass of guilty feel-
ings to fight me off. Who knows, God may _
like His virgins already warmed on the fire,
palpitating with unvirginal desires?

Sarah, too, is aware of the condition of Judith's vir-
ginity.

Sarah: My Lord, she is a virgin. There has never
been a virginity that was petted and desired
at closer quarters, but it is a virginity
just the same. She has a certificate from
the Grand Rabbi to prove it. Would you
like to see for yourself?

Judith is almost continually in the throes of con-
flict, and the solutions to her conflicts are dominated

by her pride. The first conflict is between the prOphecy

26

and truth. In conflict with Judith's faith in the pro-
phecy is her knowledge of her own nature. In her be-
ginning discussions with Joachim she reveals exactly what
she is. When Judith wants to see clearly she can.
Judith: Does your prophecy also say she shall be
the most pleasure-loving girl in the city?
Because that's what I am believe me. If
peOple think I am beautiful, that's because

I have expensive clothes and I know how to
wear them.

John will tell you! Although he certainly
won't tell you anything about me that you
couldn't learn from Paul, James or Peter,
or any of the officers who can dance and
kiss just as well as he does. But when
he's finished, you will know once and for
all time that I am not the Judith referred
to in the prOphecy.
The same Judith who can see herself so clearly, can
suddenly be lost in flights of fancy.
Judith does not solve her conflict rationally.
Her decision to go to Holofernes is motivated by her pride
as a result of Joachim's maneuvering. Joachim presents
John as a failure, and she grabs the bait. When.John
first enters, Judith is ready to use him against Joachim,
to prove she is ”a saint who is slightly soiled." But
when Joachim uses John to verify the total defeat of the
army, Judith reverses her tactics. It is a humiliation
to her that John.has been defeated. John becomes her vic-
tim and Joachim becomes her tool. The motivation for her
new decision seems to be twofold. John, who seems to

have been an admirable young man in.Judith's eyes, has

27

been defeated. Her reaction to defeat is violent, not
only because her country has been defeated, but also
because the defeat attached to John becomes somehow
associated with her through their relationship. She will
raise God and country from defeat to victory to reinstate
herself. Judith's vanity knows no bounds. And as John
tries to reason with her, to try to get her to admit the
prOphecy is a fraud, Judith becomes only more firmly en-
trenched. John becomes a threat to her ability and to
the pr0phecy, he may destroy her daydreams.
John: Judith, you are not the virgin prescribed
by the scriptures - and you know it.
Judith: No, I do not know it.
Judith will not accept reality, to do so would be to
deny that she was special. And When.John tries to con-
front her with the reality of what she will be doing when
she goes to Holofernes, Judith falls back on the only
support she has: the lessons Joachim has taught her.
Judith: as if by memory. Holofernes does not
exist. Holofernes is only a name for a
special way of suffering necessary to
redemption. If I leave here tonight it
will not be to join him, but to give my-
self to those other things. And I shall
not be the only girl in the world who has
used her beauty and innocence as if they
were intended not for a man, but for a
great moment in history.
The speech has all the characteristics of Joachim's
authorship. Holofernes has nothing to do with sex, he

is a "special way of suffering.” And perhaps the morsel

28

that appeals most to Judith's fancy: "as if they were

intended not for a man, but for a great moment in history."
Judith has a very real fear of the moment when

she is to meet Holofernes.

Judith: Small soul that you are have you no pity?
Can't you see that my courage will hold
just so long as I shut off my imagination?
Answer my question. Is everything lost?

She is afraid to become a woman, but exactly what she is
afraid of does not become apparent until Act III after
the murder. Joachim uses her fear to try to stifle any
sexual excitement Judith might feel. As Judith begins to
prepare herself for "the moment she was made for," she
makes an oath uniquely indicative. God becomes a witness
to the state of her legs.

Judith: No one has ever seen me without my clothes.
But before God I guarantee you and the
people that my legs are smooth and my feet
unscratched.

Joachim: Judith, it is absolutely necessary that
you remain unexcited.

Judith views the moment she was made for as the time
when she will sacrifice herself for God. Actually, like
any other girl, she was made to become a woman.

When she admits her confused mental state,
Joachim is there to interject his will.

Judith: Judith! I'm beginning to see what this
girl Judith is like. Ah, but how I'd like
to know what she is really thinking about
behind this mask of flesh.

Joachim: And Holofernes, do you see him clearly

too? A brute, shouting drunken insults at
the Jews and their God!

29

Judith: I can see him.

Joachim: Do you see his women milling around you,
despoiling your robes, tearing your hair,
mocking your body?

Judith: I can see them.

Joachim: Do you see the giant, half asleep on his
couch, reaching out to grab you, drawing
you to him?

Judith: I can almost touch him.

Joachim: Are you fighting his embrace?

Judith: I'm watching the pulse of a blue vein.in
his neck, it's throbbing like the artery on
the neck of a bull. I'm pressing my finger
against it. His face is growing purple.
Heavens, where am I?

Joachim seems to have Judith mesmerized in this exchange
of dialogue. Closely allied with the sexual union is the
sacrifice of the bull and death. Joachim's treats sex
as something harsh and ugly, grotesque. Judith appears
to lose contact with reality. Her imagination has trans-
ported her into another world, and there is a moment
where she loses all contact. Both of these moments will
occur again, but they will occur transfigured by Judith's
fantasies. The bull will be sacrificed, only the sur-
roundings will be redecorated to suit a woman's tastes.
Holofernes will be killed to preserve Judith's perfect
love. She will lost contact with reality, but it will
have a fairytale quality: there will be a delicious
secret between a young girl and a fallen angel.

Once Judith has consented to go to Holofernes,
there is no turning back for her, she could never admit
a mistake. As far as the sign from God is concerned, it

has not occurred so she must make some rationalization.

30

She tries to make some amends for the pleasure she has
sought from her young suitors.

Judith: I never really loved any of those men, not
really. They never really touched me.

Does this mean that I am chaste and that

God has chosen me to fulfill the prophecy?
Judith begins to erase the things that do not fit into
her plans. Later, in Act III, she will find a way to
erase also the mark Holofernes left. On a sudden im-
pulse Judith has agreed to fulfill the prophecy. Now,
although she negates final judgments from moments before,
she must rearrange her thinking to coincide with her new
intentions. By the time Susanna enters, Judith is firmly
set in her new role.

It is through contrast with Susanna that Judith's
faults become even more glaring. Susanna is everything
that Judith is not.

Susanna: But I've stolen none of your haughtiness or
pride. 'When I've bumped into you in the
street and youfive looked down on me with
scorn, I've imagined your resignation.
When you were cruel I've imagined your
meekness. In front of your need for luxury,
I've imagined your modesty. I've been
happy, Judith, because I've made myself
look just like you.

Susanna has been a woman to the men.Judith has denied.

Susanna: The man? Dozens of them. They come to me
after you have warned them up on the
terrace. Dozens of them, trying to forget
or seeking revenge. And while they cry in
my arms or caress me, they call me Judith.

Susanna has satisfied the men.Judith has tormented in her

pleasure-seeking. To each of Judith's disdainful remarks

31

Susanna replies in humility and honesty. Her intentions
to go to Holofernes are most noble. Judith can still re-
ceive the credit, but Susanna will perform the deed. She
will do this to preserve Judith's purity.

It is then that Judith tells Susanna, just
exactly how she views her virginity. And Judith's fear
of becoming a woman is a little clearer.

Judith: So that's what the foolish virgins dream
about? My virginity! I don't know what
yours was like, Susanna, but I'm beginning
to understand mine. It's neither ignorant
nor innocent nor pure, but it's mine. It's
a promise I bear inside me, like a child; a
shame that will someday fill me to bursting
with pride. Now God has changed this
promise of defeat into one of victory.
That's his business. But even if I were in
love with a young man, tonight I'd say to
him: ”No, you shall not be the first.”

Judith has viewed the loss of her virginity as a promise
of defeat that will fill her with pride. But defeat
would never make Judith feel proud. It is now that
Judith admits God's function and what she hapes to gain
from the prophecy. God is going to change the defeat of
her virginity into a glorious victory. She nonchalantly
adds that this is God's business, when in reality it has
little to do with God. It has been.the extreme dislike
of defeat (pride) and her fear that have kept Judith from
becoming a woman.

Finally she thinks out loud of perhaps some way

that she can get all the credit for “sacrificing” herself.

32

Judith: Susanna, you.don't understand me any
better than John or the rabbis. If I ob-
ject to the way they're pushing me into
this adventure, it's because I've been
dreaming, in my bed at night, of doing
something like this on.my own. But I
waited too long . . . and now it's God
who's going to get all the credit. Maybe
I've known all along it was really His
idea. Maybe God thinks I really thought
it up all by myself. Maybe God's jealous
because I thought of it first . . . maybe
this is His revenge.
Like the people of Israel's concept, Judith's concept of
God is shallow and immediate. He exists when.He is handy.
When she is at the peak of her pride, she would just as
soon dispense with Him. Judith's dialogue with Susanna
is most revealing; Susanna serves as a contrast and a con-
fidante. As Act I closes Susanna and John plan to save
Judith in spite of herself. Through the people of Israel,
Joachim and Judith, Giraudoux has made clear his opinion
of man's eye view of God.

Act II opens with the seamier side of war in the
midst of perverts and a procuress, and it is here that
Judith comes face-to-face with stark reality. She enters
young, virginal and naive. She is the source of their
entertainment. Uneducated in certain aspects of life, she
is at the mercy of those who have been saturated with
sensation. Judith is as much a pawn here as she was
with Joachim. Sarah knows that Judith is most sensitive
to humiliation so she sets the plan.

Sarah: It's very simple. The rest of us will curse

33

and insult the girl. Egon will be fas-
cinated by her words. Bit by bit, he will
let her seduce him into saving the city.
They have no trouble fooling Judith, for she is
still intoxicated with her fantasy. Her vision of the
moment is romantic and unreal. She visualizes herself
plated in virginal armor.

Judith: To remain a girl, my lord, is to be driven
by a blind force that innures you to pain,
unhappiness and suffering. All in the hope
that some day you will encounter grandeur
in the form of another human being.

When.Egon tells Judith to go home because she has con-
vinced him to save the city, Judith is bitterly disappoint-
ed. She was there mainly to become a woman, to lose her
virginity and attain a glorious victory. Besides, Holo-
fernes was supposed to be devastated by the most beautiful
of women.

This beginning scene in.Act II reveals how poorly
Judith functions in a real situation. Sarah makes it
clear that Judith exists in another world.

Sarah: There is scarcely a hint of hair and when
Judith cries, even when she perspires, it
is like dew at sunrise. And she was born
rich.

Sarah and Egon exist in a world of sweat and blood. The
death of Lamia fills the background of their existence,.
tatooed navels, hunger and perversion. This is their
chance, especially Sarah's, for revenge: they shatter

Judith's unrealistic existence with a minimum of effort.

In the face of reality Judith is extremely fragile.

3h

As Egon parades as the king, we get some impression

of the real Holofernes. He is intelligent and powerful.

Egon also serves as an effeminate contrast to the real

king.

When the hoax is revealed to Judith she experiences

a most bitter humiliation and her fantasies are disinte-

grated momentarily. Judith cannot accept the world on

real terms, so she recoils. She vents her anger at the

most available victim as she did when she was humiliated

with John.

The most handy scapegoat is God. He should

have warned her, sent her some sign.

Judith:

Do you think that, after what God has done
to me, I can ever show the world my face
again? I've been shamed, Holofernes.
Burned with shame! I can still feel them,
Egon's lips, like a white brand on.my
burning face.

Holofernes: It's the brand that burns, the face is

Judith:

white. Here, let me wipe it off.

You'll never wipe off the false kiss God
gave me. His is worse than Egon's. And
it's all over my face.

She is angry with God and herself for being fooled by Egon,

but she can never accept defeat. Judith will find some

way to work this out to her pride's content.

JUdlth!

The only way I can get a foothold now is to
debase myself. Do you think that all
Israel and God Himself have been flattering
me, pampering me, for twenty years just to
throw me into a trap like this? And even
if they have I refuse to accept it. Body
and soul, buried in shame!

Judith's actual confrontation with Holofernes is

little like she imagined it. Holofernes saves her from

35

the clutches of Egon and Sarah. She meets him at her
greatest moment of humiliation. He is the personifica-
tion of human strength, the strongest negation to man's
reliance on God or the need of any "outside help" in human
existence. He is also the perfect opportunity for Judith
to realize her natural destiny. What he offers her is a
free and natural life in its most perfect condition. But
Judith cannot accept what is natural; it is not enough.
She is sufficiently captivated by Holofernes to relin-
quish her virginity, but that is all. Her pride and
selfishness will not allow her to choose to become a real
woman and realize her natural destiny. Her choice is to
become victorious and this is her tragedy.
When.Holofernes interrupts Sarah and Egon's game,
Judith is experiencing the most humiliating experience of
her life. She comes face to face with her naivite. It
is only after Holofernes has soothed and wooed her that
she regains her confidence. And once Judith has regained
her balance she has a new fantasy and begins again to
rationalize away her past actions. Holofernes convinces
Judith that the secret she contains is sweetness. As he
describes a picture of a free life, free of God, Judith
becomes enmeshed into a new fantasy: she is the very per-
sonification of love and her love with Holofernes shall
be the greatest love story ever told. And in almost
Victorian sighs at the beginning of Act III she announces

36

that she has killed Holofernes for love and she, too,
will be killed - perhaps by an angry mob.

Judith's fantasizing is a retaliation for her
wounded pride. It was her pride which envolved her in
this situation. Her pride dominates the moment when she
will become a woman. This could be no ordinary moment and
indeed it is not. Holofernes is a "giant" among men.
Holofernes' murder is motivated by this same characteris-
tic. She must destroy him to make their physical relation-
ship perfect.

But Judith's relationship to Holofernes is not
purely physical, although he certainly viewed it is
nothing else. Judith hOpes to preserve in perfection her
love for Holofernes. Judith's actions have already
shown that she is capable of love only in the most ideal
surroundings. Nonetheless, the strongest moments of love
cannot be sustained indefinitely. They are fleeting
moments which appear and disappear in the long continuum
of human existence.

Because Holofernes is the man that he is, he would
never have his life revolve around a woman. He cherishes
the moments when a woman comes into his life, but Judith
knows that in the morning, in the next moment, he will
be carrying on his life in another realm: in war, in
ruling, in being the ”king of kings,” in being a man. He

is the epitome of independence. He is free from the laws

37

of God and man. He is free from the laws of man because
he is the law. His icy commands are obeyed without hesi-
tation by the underlings that surround him. He is free
from the laws of God because he believes only in himself
as a man complete in every aspect of human nature. He
occupies an exceptional space in the human order. He is
morally, spiritually, and intellectually independent. He
is the supreme humanistic man and he is Giraudoux's hero.

Judith, nor any woman, can never possibly attain
this glorified independence. The woman's role is to sub-
mit. Susanna, Sarah and Daria all exemplify woman's role:
they are vehicles for pleasure, security, and progeny and
they fulfill man's need for love. Even Judith submits.
Holofernes tells her - it is you.who comes to me. And
she does. And she knows she must. And once she has sub-
mitted, once she has become Holofernes' wife she knows
she will have to spend her life submitting. She and Sarah
and Daria and Susanna will all be the same. Judith, in
that respect, will be the same as all other women.

Judith is aware of her fate, of every woman's
fate. But she cannot accept every woman's fate. Her
pride demands that she must be something special. She can
become a saint: a saint‘abgzg woman and indeed 32232 man.
In the end her unnatural desires instigated by pride win
out over her natural desire to become a woman.

Judith's murder of Holofernes is symbolically the

38

murder of reality in favor of fantasy; the murder of
truth in favor of illusion. Holofernes was a magnificent
man, but he will exist in a greater magnitude in Judith's
dream world. She has transformed him into a fantasy, into
Goliath. He will exist much more conveniently, and to
her liking, in her mind. It is the only way she can con-
trol him.

Although the play occurs within an atmosphere of
death and murder, it is only Judith who is viewed as a
true murderer. John kills the prophet at the end of Act I
and the author's tone is almost humorous.

The Prophet appears in the window and calls again

for Judith to save the ci_y. John runs to the win-

dow,4grabs The Prophet, dra 3 him into the room,

throws him on the floor,and kiIls him.

John: Now, youTve been saved! What next!

Holofernes is probably responsible for the great-
est loss of human life, but his actions are to be expec-
ted since he is at war.

Sarah: . . . Take this city, burn it! But you'll
never kill all the Jews, because for weeks
and weeks I've been smuggling the young ones
through your lines to safety in the hills.
That's where they've gone, your playmates.
But they'll come back and build again and
they'll live to spit on your name!

It is precisely for these reasons that Holofernes has had
the young Jews killed. To do otherwise would make him
foolhardy.

All of these murders, although they are cruel and

sometimes savage, are not unexpected occurrences in the

39

course of human events. Savagery has not been bred out

of the human species, it is a regrettable but present
aspect of human nature. These are murders, but murders
that are almost natural in human existence. What makes
Judith the true murderer is that her crime is unnatural

to human behavior. It is almost the same as the classical
murder, where one murders one's own blood, or more nearly
where wife murders husband.

If Judith had murdered Holofernes according to
the psalm, using her beauty to trap her enemy and catch
him in a weak moment, her actions could be lauded, as the
cantors do in Act III. But when it becomes apparent that
she became Holofernes' wife, physically and spiritually,
hers becomes the most odious of murders, the most un-
natural. Judith has made virginity, which exists to be
consumed, triumph. In a world where the male is the
victor, she has made herself victorious. At the end of
the play she is not a saint but a freak.

Through Holofernes, Giraudoux philosophizes about
life and God. As he approaches Judith it is obvious that
he is aware of her fickleness. The God and the peOple
she was anxious to save are gone from her mind. And it
is at this same time that Giraudoux presents a different
concept of God, one who desires man's love rather than
his fear or demands.

Holofernes: But if you were to speak for him I might

40

listen more sympathetically. I've always
cared most for Gods that are weak, the
ones whose divinity depends on the love
men give them. And what about your
brothers? When you left them a few hours
ago, didn't you promise to work for their
salvation?

Judith: That was a thousand years ago.

To Holofernes and to Giraudoux, life exists for
man to life and to enjoy when he can enjoy it.

Holofernes: That this is a place where there is no
such thing as God.

Judith: Where? Here?

Holofernes: These thirty quare yards of tent! One
of the rare corners of life where we humans
are really free! This poor universe of ours
is infested with deities, Judith. From
Greece to the Indies, from north to south,
there isn't a country that doesn't swarm
with them, each with his own particular
evils, his own particular odors. They are
the air you breathe from the first day you
enter the world. But there are still some
places off limits to them. This is one of
those places. Here you are untouched by
original sin. Here you have no need for
prayers or singing hymns. I see you are
beginning to guess who I am.

The place Holofernes describes is literally the tent, but

symbolically it is the realm of pure sense, pure pleasure.
It is in this most natural state that man is free of God,

'when he is closest to nature. Holofernes offers Judith

a world where pleasure is not tainted by guilt.

Holofernes: I offer you, for tonight and for as
long as you like, the gift of utter
simplicity and the calm that goes with it.
I'm offering you the same words you used
as a child. Words as simple as ”apples”
and "oranges.” And inside there are no
gods to spoil the fruit, like worms eating
away at the core. I offer you songs
instead of litanies. Listen. Sounds like

#1

those come to rest naturally around us
instead of being sucked up to the clouds

by that vacuum in the heavens. I offer

you pleasure, Judith. And that is a word
that makes the image of God disappear. . . .

So the incantations of the people of Israel are absorbed
by a great vacuum. Gods spoil the fruit of life, they
rot the naturalness of life. However, it should not be
interpreted that Giraudoux is atheistic. Through the
Guard he makes his belief clearer.

Judith is attracted to Holofernes and his words
and she listens and evolves a new plan. When Susanna
enters the scene pretending to be Judith, she is a threat
to Judith. Judith reveals that she has grasped all that
Holofernes has had to say.

Judith: Israel! As far as Israel is concerned,
Judith came to Holofernes. That's the
extent of her responsibility to her people,
God and their prophets. From this point
on, fate works for or against the Jews
quite apart from anything Judith may do.
Neither Holofernes nor poor miserable
Judith can do anything for them.

Judith casts away God and country, but only because she
has another plan in mind.

Judith: God is only interested in the way things
look. Appearances, not the details! God
asks us to dress up our acts, make them
look like sacrifices. But underneath the
appearance He leaves us free to satisfy our
own desires, the lowest of them. Why, any
streetwalker in the city would know the
difference between the real Holofernes and
his servant. But not Judith-the-saint!

God wants to destroy me. Well, I won't let
him. I shall destroy myself!

If God won't play the game Judith's way, Judith will play

42

the game herself. She realizes that she came to Holo-
fernes for one reason, not holy or patriotic. She real-
izes her naivite and for these reasons she wants to des-
troy herself. By the Opening of Act III she has planned
her death. It will be most dramatic.

When Judith reveals to Susanna her reason for
killing Holofernes, Susanna is appalled.

Judith: I'd been sleeping Susanna. No more than a
few winks, but it was all the night to me.
And then I awoke, and for the first time in
my life I saw myself at dawn next to another
human being. Everything had already hap-
pened! Now all I could look forward to was
losing him. . . . Even if it were possible
to make him mine, really mine in face of
the Jews and the Assyrians. Even then every
morning there would be this awful moment
when he'd rise, face this light, leave me
and go back to the world of living and
fighting. So you see, there was no other
way to keep it perfect, the way it was last
night. . . . Hasn't the sight of a sleeping
body next to yours ever made you think that
perhaps murder is the tenderest and most
enduring embrace of all.

And Judith plans for her murder to go down in history,
and she tells her story to a drunken guard who will some-
how remember all she has said.

When Joachim and the prophets enter, Judith is
prepared to meet her death. She will be a martyr for love
and their tortures will purge her.

Judith: Let them come. Let them tie my hands, spit
on me, beat me, insult me with each lash of
the whip! That's what I want from them.
And with each lash of the whip I'll lash
back with my tongue. Blow for blow, I'll

make them listen to each joy I've known un-
til I am whipped unconscious.

43

However, Joachim and the prophets overpower Judith.

Judith is prepared with her version of the truth, but

the cantors and Joachim are much more organized in their

version. In the height of this contention Judith admits

that she is bitterly disappointed because her sainthood

did not materialize.

Judith: Then lose your patience. God won't mind.

Not since last night have I felt his
presence in this tent. I waited for Him
to turn me into an archangel. He didn't.
But you got your miracle just the same.
Why is that man sitting up again? What
does he want?

The drunken guard who would disperse Judith's story of

love will now perform another function for Judith.

With the threat of her story being destroyed by
the church, it is apparent to her that they will never
let her story survive, Judith is forced into some kind of
action. If God will not appear in person, or perform some
thunderous trick, perhaps he could send a message in some
more ordinary way. Or maybe some angel would feel sorry
for her, sorry enough to break divine rules just for her.
The Guard, a figment of Judith's imagination, will be
Judith's means of rationalizing away the events with
Holofernes so she will be free to become Judith the saint.
This lie to herself will allow her to become a saint with
a reasonably free conscience. This is also an Opportu-

nity for Giraudoux to perform the theatrics he was so

fond of and disengage himself a bit from the play to make

44

some timely comment. For this reason the Guard is not a
realistic psychological presentation, he is sprinkled with
a little of Giraudoux's love for fantasy and theatre.

The guard's first function is to repair Judith's
maidenhead.

Judith: And what about the mark made by Holofernes?

Guard: Even that can be disputed. You might as
well face it, Judith. You are still a
virgin.

After this Operation the rest of the persuasion is easy.
Giraudoux gets his chance to discuss those who are chosen
by God.

Guard: DO you really think that God is ever going
to talk to you? DO you think that God is
ever going to talk to any man? NO, Judith,
it is not in.words that God is articulate.
Those chosen by Him are anointed with
thistle Oil, their ears ring with the
silence of the night, they stumble across
the battlefields and where they pass even
the dying cease to cry. In the streams the
cold water and hard pebbles flow silently
around their legs, and watchdogs turn the
other way without a single bark. Can you
truthfully say you felt none of this
presence along your path last night?

Those who are chosen by God are rare human beings. They
are not like Joachim and his cantors. They are untainted.

Judith accepts the guard's suggestions, but she
is unwilling to give up all the ideas that Holofernes
gave her. She rather likes the idea of being considered
tender and she has become rather swept away with the idea
of love. She will incorporate both of these qualities

into the Guard.

45

Judith: DO you think I'd suffer like this if I
weren't made Of tenderness? And why must
this miracle be an afterthought? Why must
you take a night of blasphemy and make it
look as if it were something holy?

Guard: That is for God to worry about. From where
He sits, a thousand years away, God re-
serves ths right to project saintliness on
sacrilege and purity on self-indulgence.
It's all a question of knowing how to
light the stage.

For Giraudoux, God is a thousand miles away from man. He
is pure abstraction and so far removed from man that He

is not caught up in man's religious machinations.
Sacrilege and self-indulgence are man's fabrications.
Through the Guard, Giraudoux can speak quite candidly.
Giraudoux stops the play for a few moments to examine
what is happening. He draws his creation,'Judith, aside
in a gentle but admonishing way. He talks to her in soft,
warm, but firm tones. He tries to make her and the
audience see that there is nothing left to discuss or
argue about. She has made her choice through her actions,
through her murder Of Holofernes. She has made her choice,
now she must carry through.

Guard: Brightness? That's because we've reached
the moment when sour smells sweet, black is
white, when you say clear as mud and mean
transparent.

Judith remains untouched by human and sensual things.
Holofernes touched her physically, but her mind and soul
remained untouched. She is even untouched by the murder.

Guard: . . . Look at your hands. Is there a trace
Of murder left on them? Yes, rub them.

46

See if you can make a spot of blood appear.
Rub away, my dear. As long as you live,
Judith, your hands will remain white and
pure. Not a mark to mar the perfection
of your body.
She will never come in contact with life and consequently
she is a philosophical personification diametrically
Opposed to Holofernes.

The Guard, much to Judith's delight, has lost his
place in heaven because he has revealed himself to her.
She is not the only one who has been "naughty."

Judith: You, too! You too betrayed God. But what
made you do it?
Guard, with an angelic smile: Love?
Judith: Love for me?
Guard: Love for love.
SO Judith, captivated like a child by her imaginary
friend, agrees to Joachim's conditions. She departs for

the city, lost from reality, but proud.

CHAPTER II

”JUDITH”
A Tragedy in Three Acts
by
Jean.Giraudoux

English version by John K. Savacool
ACT ONE

(A room in JUDITH'S house. Two doorways and a window.
Before the curtain rises, we hear a voice which wails
with supplication: "Judith! Judith!" This voice is
joined by a chorus which repeats the same musical

wail. As the curtain rises, the voice is heard again
in solo. We see UNCLE JOSEPH and several servants
running around the room, brandishing swords and clubx.)

JOSEPH. Look downstairs! Look in all the closets! .And
remember the reward! There's silver for the man who
catches him!

SERVANT. We'll never find him.

JOSEPH. He's Someplace in this house.

SERVANT. NO sir, he is; I mean, yes he isn't!

JOSEPH. What do you mean?

SERVANT. His voice is here, no one denies that. But
Master, the voice has no body. NO body at all! It's
a ghost, that's what it is. It's the voice Of the
dead crying out for your niece, because she's the
only one who can save us! Judith! Judith!
(This call sounds so much like the cries we first

heard, that the servants tremble with fright. Indeed
the cry is echo'd by the wailing chorus outside.)

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48

JOSEPH, shouting. Quiet! Now get out! All Of you!

(The servants leave. JOSEPH looks around the room
suspiciously. He leaves .

A man's face appears in the window. The man makes a
trumpet with his hands and bellows out in the same
strident voice: "Judith! Judith! Save us!" The
face disappears. Servants and JOSEPH enter as before.
They surge into the empty room. Then, finding
nothing there, they stand immobile with awe.

Enter JOHN, a young army Officer. He drags along
with him the man whose face we saw at the sindow.)

JOHN, throwing the man onto the floor at JOSEPH'S feet.
I caught him in full flight. We'll teach these filthy
mouths once and for all that certain names are not to
be touched. Who are you?

JOSEPH. He smells as if he needs a bath. He must be one
Of the prophets!

SERVANT. The city is full of them. Dying dogs attract
flies. But when it's a city that's sick and dying,
then the scavengers are called prophets and the
buzzing is called prOphecy.

JOHN. What's your name? Answer me!

THE PROPHET, raising a hand as if to speak. Judith!
Judith!

JOSEPH. It's an epidemic! All the manure piles of the
city are dreaming about Judith. Put a gag in his
mouth!

JOHN. Let him finish first. It might help . . .

THE PROPHET. Fairest of the pure, purest Of the fair . . .

JOSEPH. Yes we know. The prophecy! The fairest Of our
daughters, the purest flower Of Israel must suffender
herself to Holofernes.

JOHN. And the fairest, he says, is Judith.

THE PROPHET. Judith! Save us!

JOSEPH. Stuff his mouth with rags and lock him in the

cellar! (The servants drag Off THE PROPHET, who is
still screaming, "Judith, save us!")

49

(One servant lags behind the others and turns at the
doorway.)

JOSEPH. What's wrong with you?
SERVANT. Good Master, please let Judith save us!

(A threatening gesture from JOSEPH and the servant
disappears after the others.)

JOHN. I hope she is not in the house.

JOSEPH. No, she is still at the hospital, tending the
wounded.

JOHN. Have you told her?

JOSEPH. What is there to tell? She knows that Israel is
dying while outside the city gates our enemy listens
for the death rattle.

JOHN. Does she know that they've decided to send her --
a sacrifice to Holofernes?

JOSEPH. Who has decided?

JOHN. The rabbis. They had a meeting . . . and the High
Priest is on his way here now. He's coming to per-
suade Judith to . . .

JOSEPH. He'll have to persuade me first.

JOHN. It's too late, Joseph. The whole city is behind
him. Have you looked into the streets this afternoon?

JOSEPH. I have.

JOHN. Then you saw it, scribbled on the walls all over
the city. Scratched with diamonds on shop windows
and smeared with charcoal on the backyard fences.
The same stupid words: ”Judith the fair, purest of
the pure, shall go to bed with Holofernes.”

JOSEPH. I saw it.
JOHN. Then you saw them too, huddled in groups at the
street corners! The same hysterical old men. The

same scab-studded crones that huddle together every
time the people smell a miracle in the making.

JOSEPH. Listen tO them!

50

(From outside comes the sound of voices wailing,
"Judith, save us!")

JOSEPH. Other tribes can eat candy or chew gum. But not
Israel! The children of Israel eternally need a
prOper name to suck on. It gives us an excuse for
minding someone else's business. If our peOple are
pious, John, it's because piety gives them an excuse
for telling God how to run the world.

(From outside come more cries of "Judith!")

JOHN. Judith! Judith! Listen to them hammer the name,
bark it, unveil its mystery. What chance do we have
against a thousand voices led by a Grand Rabbi?

JOSEPH. Is that what you came here to tell me?

JOHN. I came to tell you that I can save your niece from
being thrown to the barbarians and defiled in the hut
of their General.

JOSEPH. Save Judith? I thought it was Judith who was
to save the city.

JOHN. She must agree to nothing. When the rabbis arrive
make the girl promise to decide nothing. I'll be back
in an hour . . . and in the meantime her answer is no.
No! -- even to the Grand Rabbi. (JOHN Opens the door.
abruptly the voices stOp.) Silence? (Voices again.
This time the wailing has turned into a chant.)

More sinister than silence! They've turned her name
into a prayer. Pray, cretins, pray. There are times
when prayer is more inhuman than cries for blood!

JOSEPH. GO, John.

(JOHN leaves by side door. The chanting grows louder.
Then, through the main door, enters the GRAND RABBI.)

JOACHIM. Where is she?
JOSEPH. What do you.want Of her?

JOACHIM. As High Priest and Grand Rabbi of Israel, I
shall announce what I want only to your niece.

JOSEPH. Joachim, you shall not do this to her.

JOACHIM. Shall not! What shall not the High Priest do
to Judith?

51

JOSEPH. Transform a simple girl into a tribal saint for
the crowd to sob over.

JOACHIM. That, Joseph, is for the people of Israel to
decide. And today Israel speaks with the voice of
the prOphets. Indeed, for lack of bread, prophecy
is all our peOple have to live on.

JOSEPH. Joachim, you are a rabbi. I am a banker. Don't
talk prophecy to me. Let's call it by its name:
mass hysteria.

JOACHIM. Am I to believe that on your shoulders sits
the only clear head in the city?

JOSEPH. Yes -- unless you are a hypocrite.

JOACHIM. And with those clear-sighted eyes, I suppose you
see an end to this siege that has starved our people
and ruined commerce? I suppose you see the children
Of Israel still fat and well-fed on.GOd's bounty? As
the sole reasonable man left in the city, you smell
springtime in the air, I suppose?

JOSEPH. I smell death and pestilence. The slightest
breeze from north, south, east or west reminds me that
between us and Holofernes's army there is a ring of
Jewish corpses, rotting on the ground. Bus as yet I
do not see our peOple so anxious to save their skins
at any price that they can act like ignorant barbari-
ans 0

JOACHIM. And what is it you see standing between your
family and the certain massacre that will fall on us
tomorrow morning -- because you must realize that
your niece will be brutalized with the rest? I
suppose you see what the bourgeoisie always looks for
when courage fails and calamity threatens -- a mira-
cle! The dead rising from the battlefield and angels
descending from heaven with swords of lightning to
rout the enemy!

JOSEPH. If you like. Let's wait for the miracle.

JOACHIM. We need wait no longer! The miracle is at
hand. After two months of blind martyrdom, our city
has heard the name Of your niece. And we blind
martyrs now see an end Of our ordeal. Is she here?

JOSEPH. NO -- and you will leave this house before she
returns.

52

JOACHIM. The people have chosen Judith to be their mira-
cle, and the more I hear her name the more I believe
in Judith. I know your niece. I've watched her grow.
She is lovely and she is aware of her beauty. She is
rich and she has a taste for the fruits Of her for-
tune. All the young men of the city are her suitors.
She holds court over writers and doctors as well as
merchants and entertainers. When a girl like Judith
goes to the theatre she steals the show from the
actors, just as right now at the hospital she is
making men forget they are in the act of dying and
that our city is losing a war. Once I despaired to
see how Judith thrives on this worship. Today I re-
joice. For, it is thanks to this weakness that our
Judith will consent to give herself to God!

JOSEPH. Now that is between God and Judith.

JOACHIM. And what does Judith say about the choice God
Offers?

JOSEPH. We have other things to talk about.
JOACHIM. But she knows, does she not?

JOSEPH. How could she help but know. Your priests have
beseiged this house more thoroughly than the enemy has
beseiged the city.

JOACHIM. And has she changed her way Of living? Has she
turned her mirrors to the wall? Removed a single
feather from her bed? You wouldn't know, of course.
You are much too busy denying the grace of God in this
place which the Almighty has already made sacred.

JOSEPH. Sacred! I hope that this house will never be
sacred. Why this is where my father had his first
stroke, where Judith used to play with her dolls, where
she lost her first tooth. In this room my family has
eaten, cried and spit. See, I spit! If this place
is holy, that is because man has lived in it and
made it human.

JOACHIM. That is for Judith to decide.

JOSEPH. She can decide tomorrow. Tonight she is busy at
the hospital.

JOACHIM. I have already summoned her. And here she is.
(JUDITH enters, accompanied by LITTLE JACOB.)

53

JUDITH. Greetings, Joachim. Good evening, Uncle. Is
there a crust of bread left in the house for little
Jacob? Look at him. I found him on the stairway.
He's dying of hunger.

LITTLE JACOB. I don't want any bread.
JUDITH. What do you want, little boy?

LITTLE JACOB. I want Judith to go to our enemy Holofer-
nes.

JUDITH. My, but you learned your lesson well, didn't you!
And what does Judith do when she giver herself to
Holofernes?

LITTLE JACOB. I don't know.

JUDITH. Will she dance with him? Will she cut Off his
head? What will she do?

LITTLE JACOB. I don't know.

JUDITH. How sweet! And you are not going to eat any more
bread until she does?

LITTLE JACOB. I shall not eat any more bread until she
gives herself to Holofernes.

JUDITH. And what about meat? Would you eat a piece of
meat?

LITTLE JACOB. Meat?

JUDITH. Uncle Joseph, see if there isn't one more slice
Of meat left in the kitchen.

JOSEPH. The last we have. Send him to the kitchen. And
tell him to leave my house in peace!

(LITTLE JACOB runs Off to the kitchen.)

JUDITH. Uncle, you must not be angry with him. Poor
little Jacob, he's only repeating what they teach him
in school. Here, let me smooth down those ruffled
white hairs. There, kiss me. I hope the Grand Rabbi
will forgive the vulgarity of this family scene. (She
runs her hands around her uncle's collar.) Let me
fix your collar. Now, leave us, please.

JOSEPH. Don't trust him, Judith. Don't trust Joachim to-
night.

54

 

Judith: "My, but you learned your
lesson well, didn't you! And
what does Judith do when she
gives herself to Holofernes?"

Little Jacob: "I don't know."

55

JUDITH. Tonight there is no Joachim. Tonight there is
only Judith and God.

JOSEPH. Don't trust God either. Not even God! Beware
of God, Judith! (Joseph leaves the room.)

JOACHIM. Judith! God is indeed in this room tonight.

JUDITH. Then I am afraid He's got the wrong address.
This is not the house He was looking for.

JOACHIM. The prophecy says she shall be the fairest of
the fair, purest Of the pure. It says nothing about
her being modest.

JUDITH. Does your prophecy also say that she shall be
the most pleasure-loving girl in the city? Does it
say the most frivolous, the most capricious, the
most changeable? I am all these things as well. If
people think I am beautiful, that's because I have
expensive clothes and I know how to wear them.

JOACHIM. If you.know Of any one more worthy to fulfill
the law, name her now.

JUDITH. Any woman with the courage to do what you pro-
pose would seem both beautiful and pure. That's what
the prophecy really means.

JOACHIM. I'm afraid not, Judith. Israel is not Greece,
and our God does not speak in.Homeric metaphors. If
we are bound to the letter Of the law, that is because
our Jewish God calls each one of His creatures by His
own rightful name.

JUDITH. Strange, but I've yet to hear Him pronounce the
name Of Judith!

JOACHIM. Have you.heard Him pronounce the name of
Martha, Esther, Ruth or any Of your friends?

JUDITH. Joachim, you set your sights tOO high on the
social scale. Just once, can't you forget the rich
and mighty? There are still plenty of virgins in the
middle class.

JOACHIM. Judith!
JUDITH. And what about the working girls? The church

should be more democratic, Joachim. Why don't you
give a chance at glory tO a name like Cohan or Levy?

56

 

Joseph: Don't trust him, Judith. Don't
truth Joachim tonight. . . .
Don't trust God either. Not
even.GOd!

57

JOACHIM. These Cohans and Levys are the very ones who
have designated you.

JUDITH. And I have no interest in choices made by people
who have not, themselves, been chosen, chosen by God.

JOACHIM. Somehow, I did not expect to find Judith so re-
sistant to the voice of God.

JUDITH. I repeat: to me it is their voice, not Jehovah's,
that I hear. And, I've been listening. The tiniest
of signs and I would have been convinced.

JOACHIM. What do you want? A burning bush?

JUDITH. A flash Of warmth would do. Or a single word.
All day I've been listening for it. I even provoked
the wounded to make them cry out. But when the words
came they were no more than the words of dying men.
Two of them died in my arms this afternoon. I held
them against me until I held nothing but death.
(LITTLE JACOB appears in the doorway.)

LITTLE JACOB. I don't want any meat either.

JUDITH. But you're so hungry, little fellow.

LITTLE JACOB. And I don't want any cheese either.
And no cake.

JUDITH. And what about a kiss, if Judith gives it to you?
LITTLE JACOB. Not if that means breaking the fast.
JUDITH. Not if I kiss you on the neck, behind the ear.
That's permitted. Now, would you like an apple?
There is just one apple left in the house.
LITTLE JACOB. An apple?

JOACHIM. Don't give it to him. They'll only make him
give it back.

JUDITH. Off with you then.

LITTLE JACOB. But maybe an apple . . .

JUDITH. Very well, an apple. Now GO!
(LITTLE JACOB leaves.)

58

JUDITH. I'm grateful to you, Joachim, for not suggesting
that this was God talking to me through the voice of
a child.

JOACHIM. If tO be worthy of you, a child of Israel has
found a way of equating fast with famine, then his
voice might well cause you to reflect . . .

JUDITH. Children have no idea of what happens when a giant
and a young girl are locked in a room together.

JOACHIM. Do you?

JUDITH. ‘Vaguely. One night in a dream I wrestled for
hours with Goliath.

JOACHIM. Who won?
JUDITH. He did, in my dream. But then I woke up.

JOACHIM. Judith, that was no dream for a proper young
girl, but it augurs well for us. ‘When a girl is afraid
to fight Off an attack, she Often has a better chance
of winning the battle. (The apple comes hurtling
through the window and lands at JUDITH'S feet.) And
there is your apple again!

JUDITH. Please, Joachim, find someone else. Down in the
courtyard I met a girl who sees visions. There are
stigmata on her breasts and on her tongue, and her
name is the same as mine. You don't see any divine
ink on me, do you?

JOACHIM. I have seen that girl. It's true her name is
Judith, but she is blind in one eye and there are Open
sores on her face.

JUDITH. Then cure her! In time you can turn her imper-
fections into something appealing.

JOACHIM. Time? How much time do you think we have?

JUDITH. At the hospital they say Holofernes is low on
munitions. They say he is melting down jewels to make
heads for his arrows.

JOACHIM. Yes, I've heard the story. In fact, I was the
one who put it into circulation. The truth is, Judith,
we are the ones who have no more weapons.

JUDITH. What about the thirty thousand Horsemen that were
coming from Syria to help us?

59
JOACHIM. They arrived this morning. This afternoon they
joined forces with the enemy.

JUDITH. (All the greater glory for our army when the day
of victory comes.

JOACHIM. Judith, our army no longer exists.
JUDITH. What did you say?

JOACHIM. The truth.

JUDITH. A rabbi's truth.

JOACHIM. Would you rather hear it from a soldier? John,
for instance?

JUDITH . Why John?
JOACHIM. Because I see him coming across the courtyard.
JUDITH. It's no use. I still won't believe you.

JOACHIM. Would you believe him? You know him well, of
course?

JUDITH. Yes, I know him well.
JOACHIM. You are engaged, I suppose?
JUDITH. What if we are?

JOACHIM. If it's because of John that you are hesitating,
I know how to convince you.

JUDITH. Convince me of what?

JOACHIM. Of your duty to become a saint.

JUDITH. A saint who is slightly soiled.

JOACHIM. How dare you talk like that to a rabbi!

JUDITH. John.will tell you! Although he certainly won't
tell you anything about me that you couldn't learn
from Paul, James or Peter, or any of the Officers who
can dance and kiss just as well as he does. But
when he's finished, you will know once and for all
time that I am not the Judith referred to in the
prOphecy.

(Enter JOHN.)

6O

JOACHIM. Come in, my son.
JOHN. What do you want, Joachim?
JOACHIM. To ask you a few questions.

JOHN. I'm a soldier, not a rabbi. Your knowledge far
exceeds mine.

JOACHIM. These will be questions that even a lieutenant
can answer.

JOHN. Yes, Rabbi.

JUDITH. John answer me. And I want you to tell the
truth, even if it debases you, even if it debases me.

JOACHIM. Don't you think that my question takes preced-
ence over yours?

JUDITH. Oh? Then go ahead and ask it.

JOACHIM. John, is it true that this morning what was left
of our city guard mutinied against its Officers and
surrendered to the enemy?

JUDITH. That's a lie!

JOACHIM. Is it a lie that at noon our sacred battalion
fled in panic and left its flag on the ground for all
to see -- lying in the sun outside the city walls?

JUDITH. False! I know it's false!

JOACHIM. Is it false that the only trOOps left to defend
the city are two companies of Old men recently pressed
into service? Answer me!

JUDITH. Well, answer him! One word will do it.

JOHN. Don't be cruel.

JUDITH. Cruel! Where were my eyes? I don't need an
answer. It is written on your face.

JOHN. Thank God for that.
JUDITH. I suppose you also thank God for defeat?

JOHN. Careful, Judith. Yours is the first mouth in the
city to pronounce that word.

61

JUDITH. It's not the word I'm afraid Of. It's what it
stands for. SO it's defeat, is it! Our glorious army
has been defeated! Our captains in their fancy uni-
forms and our lieutenants with all their ribbons have
been defeated.

JOHN. That makes us less attractive, I suppose?
JUDITH. Hideous, that's what it makes you! Hideous!
JOHN. I can still look you in the face, Judith.

JUDITH. But it's not me you see. If you could really see
me, you'd lower your eyes. If you could see what I
am like from head to foot, now that our country is
broken, beaten and trampled on, you wouldn't be able
to stand the sight of me. You'd fly from me faster
than you flew from the enemy. I saw you, a little
while ago, down in the street with the children running
after you and the girls clapping their hands. You
even kissed one of the children. You.had no right to
do that. It was the worst kind of lie. You knew in
your heart you were defeated and yet you.kissed that
child!

JOHN. I suppose kisses are only for the man who wins.

JUDITH. For the Old and the weak, or even children, de-
feat can be a kind of consecration. But for a soldier,
no. For a soldier defeat is inadmissible.

JOHN. You are young, Judith, very young.

JOACHIM. Enough, my son. Tonight Judith is the first
soldier of the city in our first line of battle.

JOHN. Then she should not insult the face Of defeat. That
is for the non-combatants. If I'm really defeated,
that means I'm no longer responsible to you or anyone
else.

JOACHIM. We are always responsible to God.

JOHN. God's never been especially fond of lost causes.
When we're losing I think He even.welcomes our insults.
Insults spare him the bother of being implicated in
the catastrophe. Besides he still has Judith. Be-
cause, if I understand rightly, this is the night when
Judith pulls God's chestnuts out Of the fire.

JUDITH. Yes, God still has Judith.

John:

62

 

"God's never been especially fond of lost
causes. When we're losing I think He even
welcomes our insults. Insults spare him the
bother Of being implicated in the catastrophe.
Besides he still has Judith. Because, if I
understand rightly, this is the night when
Judith pulls God's chestnuts out of the fire."

63

JOACHIM. Youfve said enough, John.

JOHN. Yes, because no matter what I say, her pride will
translate it into flattery.

JUDITH. Is it a crime to insist that Israel be the name
for a race of conquerors? Is it my fault if you heroes
are too weak to defend our honor and pass the sword
to a woman?

JOHN. TO you, at least, we pass nothing at all. What
was the next question?

JUDITH. There are no more questions.

JOHN. Fairest daughter of Israel? Are you really the
fairest? So much of you is the reflection of gold and
luxury that one never knows what you are really like.
Look at her, Joachim! Look at her well, the subtle
dialation Of the nostrils, the blood beating at her
temples. This girl is the threshold Of everything
that is passionately human and changing. Beauty it
is, but human beauty -- beauty Of the moment!

JUDITH. And this is the moment, the moment I was made
for!

JOHN. With me you were more modest, Judith. With me you

were not so sure. Maybe you think God is more easily
satisfied?

JUDITH. Tonight I shall be the most beautiful of women.
That I swear.

JOHN. Judith, you are not the virgin prescribed by the
scriptures -- and you know it.

JUDITH. No, I do not know it.

JOHN. Ask her, Joachim, ask where she was two weeks ago.
This same time of day, just after she left the hos-
pital.

JUDITH. Where was I?

JOHN. In my arms.

JUDITH. In the arms Of a soldier who had been defeated
by the enemy.

JOHN. In the arms Of a man who wrapped himself around you
and pressed his lips against yours --

64

JUDITH. I suppose I surrendered?

JOHN. No, indeed, you did not. You are not simple enough
for that. Everytime I approach Judith, she musters a
mass Of guilty feelings to fight me Off. Who knows,
God may like His virgins already warmed on the fire,
palpitating with unvirginal desires?

JUDITH. It's you who are simple, my friend. And naive.

JOHN. Yes, because I'm weary with the weight of my love
for you.

JUDITH. Listen to him, Joachim! One kiss and he thinks
I'm promised to him for life.

JOHN. Don't worry. When you marry Holofernes you'll get
no protests from these lips of mine.

JUDITH, as if by memory. Holofernes does not exist. Holo-
fernes is only a name for a special way Of suffering
necessary to redemption. If I leave here tonight it
will not be to join him, but to give myself to those
other things. And I shall not be the only girl in the
world who has used her beauty and her innocence as if
they were intended not for a man, but for a great
moment in history!

JOHN. Holofernes is very much a man.
JOACHIM. John, youfive said enough.

JOHN. Holofernes is a giant. He has a giant's hands, a
giant's fingers, a giant's bones in his body . . .

JUDITH. Small soul that you are, have you no pity? Can't
you see that my courage will hold just so long as I
shut Off my imagination? Answer my question. Is
everything lost?

JOHN. Everything.

JUDITH. Nothing can save us?

JOHN. Nothing. Holofernes attacks at dawn, and there
will be nothing to stop him.

JUDITH. Nothing to stop him at dawn . . .
JOACHIM. And the sun is setting, Judith.
JUDITH. Thank you, John. You decided for me. I leave

65

tonight. (She takes a step toward Joachim.) That is,
if Joachim will still accept me.

JOACHIM. I accept you.

JUDITH. I want you to be sure Of this. Look me in the
eyes. Touch my skin. Pinch my cheeks. God should
know by the arch of my nose that I am more a creature
of feeling than intelligence.

JOACHIM. You are the beauty of beauties.

JUDITH. NO one has ever seen me without my clothes. But
before God I guarantee you and the peOple that my legs
are smooth and my feet unscratched.

JOACHIM. Judith, it is absolutely necessary that you re-
main unexcited.

JUDITH. I never really loved any of those men, not really.
They never really touched me. Does this mean that I
am chaste and that God has chosen me to fulfill the
prOphecy?

JOACHIM. You are chaste, and God has chosen you. Are you
ready to leave?

JUDITH. I am.

JOACHIM. You know what is expected of you.

JUDITH. Please, Joachim, no sermons. If you know what I
should do, keep it to yourself. I see only too clear-
ly what's to be done.

JOACHIM. Then, Judith, this is farewell.

JUDITH. Judith! I'm beginning to see what this girl
Judith is like. Ah, but how I'd like to know what she
is really thinking about behind this mask of flesh.

JOACHIM. And Holofernes, do you see him clearly too? A
brute, shouting drunken insults at the Jews and their
God!

JUDITH. I can see him.

JOACHIM. Do you see his women milling around you, despoil-
ing your robes, tearing your hair, mocking your body?

JUDITH. I can see them.

66

JOACHIM. DO you see the giant, half asleep on his couch,
reaching out to grab you, crawing you to him?

JUDITH. I can almost touch him.

JOACHIM. Are you fighting his embrace? Are you fight-
ing?

JUDITH. I'm watching the pulse of a blue vein in his
neck, it's throbbing like the artery on the neck Of a
bull. I'm pressing my finger against it. His face
is growing purple. Heavens, where am I?

JOACHIM. In the past, Judith. It's time tO move into
the future.

JUDITH. When? Now?

JOACHIM. Wait until the moon rises. That gives you time
for prayers.

JUDITH. Very well. But you must keep my uncle occupied
between now and then.

JOACHIM. John, are you coming?
JOHN. NO, I'm staying here.

JUDITH. Let him stay. Like a good soldier, he'll stick
to his post until he is relieved. (JOACHIM leaves.)

JOHN. Then you.have made up your mind? TO save an
insensitive people ruled by a few unscrupulous priests
and scorned even by their God, you are leaving. Judith!
In this city of ours even the children are ugly!

JUDITH. TO save them, peOple, priests and children, I am
leaving.

JOHN. Now?
JUDITH Now.
JOHN. Then what can I tell you? What do you.want to know?

JUDITH. The password, to get through the lines. What is
the password tonight?

JOHN. Can't you guess? It's your name. Tonight, Judith,
even Jehovah is flattered because His name starts
with the same letter as yours.

67

JUDITH. What gate do I take out of the city?

JOHN. The gate opposite your house. The guards expect
you to pass that way.

JUDITH. Where is Holofernes's tent?
JOHN. North, due north Of the gate.

JUDITH. I can understand that. He wanted to be where he
could see the sun beating down on the city he is about
to devour. Is there a road or a trail I can follow?

JOHN. NO. Outside the gate follow the stream that
crosses the road. But don't drink, because the water
has been poisoned. And wear a heavy cloak. Are you
afraid?

JUDITH. Neither solitude nor silence has ever frightened
me.

JOHN. Count on neither solitude nor silence. Outside
that gate, every ten paces you'll be stumbling on a
sack Of flesh and bones. There will be dogs and at
times it will seem as if the whole battlefield is
wailing in its sleep.

JUDITH. A heavy cloak . . . is that all the advice you
have to give me?

JOHN. That is all I have to say.
JUDITH. Are you sure that's all?

JOHN. DO you want me to tell you.how a girl can look a
giant in the face? How a virgin can save the letter
of her virginity while she is being raped? Is it
now, Judith, that you finally ask me to teach you
how a girl makes love?

JUDITH. I wish you would.

JOHN. It's too late for me, Judith. But outside that
door is just the person you need. Susanna, where are
you?

JUDITH. Who is that?

JOHN. A woman I brought here with me. She's not Of your
class. But it's my dying wish that you.receive her
and listen to what she has to say.

68

JUDITH. Since when is it the survivors who make the
dying wishes?

JOHN. Judith, for once in your life forget your pride
and listen to this woman. I'll be waiting outside.
Susanna, you may come in now.

(John Opens the door for SUSANNA. She enters a few
steps. Stands looking at JUDITH. JOHN then dis-
appears and closes the door behind him.)

JUDITH. Who are you?
SUSANNA. A friend.

JUDITH. Youlve come at an awkward time. This isn't
exactly a day for friendships.

SUSANNA. . . . a woman who admires you.

JUDITH. Under the circumstances, admiration would seem
like an insult in disguise.

SUSANNA. . . . a woman whose life has been the Opposite
Of yours.

JUDITH. What kind of life is that?

SUSANNA. I have lovers and I give myself to them . . .
for money. My name is the best known of all the names
that girls like you are not supposed to know.

JUDITH. In that case, you.have the right to speak to me
tonight. What do you want?

SUSANNA. TO save you.

JUDITH. Save the girl who is going to save the city? I
see there is nothing modest about you.

SUSANNA. DO you think I am beautiful?
JUDITH. For the sake of your profession, I hope so.

SUSANNA. Look at me closely. Look closely, Judith. If
I am beautiful, it is because I look something like
you. My beauty, I know, covers nothing, nothing at
all. It has nothing to hide. But just the same it
is something like yours. I've been told so a hundred
times. And I'm your height, too -- and my voice . . .

JUDITH. That voice?

69

SUSANNA. Oh, I know it isn't trained to hide my thoughts,
like yours. I have no thought to hide. No silences
inside me. But it is your voice!

JUDITH. Have you heard that a hundred times too? Who is
he? Who is the man?

SUSANNA. The man? Dozens of them. They come to me after
you have warmed them up on the terrace. Dozens of
them, trying to forget or seeking revenge. And while
they cry in my arms or caress me, they call me Judith.

JUDITH. That's their password again tonight.

SUSANNA. For a year now, I've been watching you. I know
how you talk and how you walk. And if I've imitated
you it's not just to please your boy friends. It's
because I love what you are. It's because you are me.
You are the way I'd be if I weren't what I am. What's
the harm in that?

JUDITH. No harm. It's theft, that's all.

SUSANNA. But I've stolen none Of your haughtiness or
pride. When I've bumped into you in the street and
youflve looked down.on.me with scorn, I've imagined
your resignation. When you.were cruel I've imagined
your meekness. In front of your need for luxury, I've
imagined your modesty. I've been happy, Judith, be-
cause I've made myself look just like you.

JUDITH. DO you?
SUSANNA. I make people think I do.

JUDITH. No woman patterned after a human being could
ever resemble me. Not tonight!

SUSANNA. But you have never been human before. Not be-
fore tonight.

JUDITH. Since you must imitate me, speak clearly and
come to the point.

SUSANNA. I want to go in your place.

JUDITH. I expected this!

SUSANNA. I don't believe in prophets. Most of them are
spies, anyway, working for the enemy. There are some

people who think Holoferhes has heard so many men
boasting about Judith that he has set a trap to catch

70
her for himself.

JUDITH. What if he has? Couldn't God have put this
thought in his head, in order to destroy him?

SUSANNA. If so many men of our own army, who know better,
could be taken in by this resemblance how can you
expect Holofernes to see the difference? Holofernes
is a barbarian. He makes no distinction between the
beauty I wear like a mantle and that other beauty like
yours, that one really sees.

JUDITH. And what about God? Will He see any difference
between us?

SUSANNA. God sees fewer differences than we give Him
credit for, Judith.

JUDITH. And just so this exchange of roles will be com-
plete, I suppose you'd like me to replace you and lie
with the next man who knocks on the door and that he
too will see no difference between us.

SUSANNA. Judith, you don't understand. It's not just to
save your life, it's not because I think you are afraid!
It's something else. Let me go in your place tonight.
Tomorrow morning the people will see you in the street.
They'll look at you and think you have returned from
the enemy . . . and the city will be saved.

JUDITH. If it's not my life, then what is it?
SUSANNA. You must stay . . .

JUDITH. Stay pure? You talk like the catechism. I take
it, you refer to my virginity!

SUSANNA. For once my profession will be an honor.

JUDITH. But doesn't Judith have to be a virgin? And isn't
that precisely what you are not? Or has my virginity
sent so many customers knocking at your door that you
want to keep me the way I am?

SUSANNA. Oh, Judith, when a girl becomes a woman she
changes her sex, her race. I want to preserve the
miracle that you are -- Judith, the young girl.

JUDITH. So that's what the foolish virgins dream about?
My virginity! I don't know what yours was like, Sus-
anna, but I'm beginning to understand mine. It's

Judith:

 

71

". . . My Virginity! I don't know
what yours was like, Susanna, but

I'm beginning to understand mine.
It's neither ignorant nor innocent
nor pure, but it's mine. It's a pro-
mise I bear inside me, like a child;
a promise Of a wonderful defeat, a
great shame that will someday fill
me to bursting with pride . . ."

72

neither ignorant nor innocent nor pure, but it's mine.
It's a promise I bear inside me, like a child; a
promise of a wonderful defeat, a great shame that
will someday fill me to bursting with pride. Now

God has changed this promise of defeat into one of
victory. That's His business. But even if I were

in love with a young man, tonight I'd say to him:

”NO, you shall not be the first."

SUSANNA. Judith! You.must save yourself!
JUDITH. Who says I won't?

SUSANNA. But you're a girl. You.have no weapons, no
strength.

JUDITH. I have the most dangerous weapon Of all.
SUSANNA. Poison?

JUDITH. The gift of speech! Words seethe under pressure
inside me. Answers to a question! To a whole series
of questions I've never heard asked? Just what they
are going to prove, I have no idea. But the words
are there. And when the time comes I'll let them
prove whatever there is to be proven. Why, Susanna,
you're crying!

SUSANNA. All that sweetness . . . all that violence . . .
all for nothing!

JUDITH. Susanna, you don't understand me any better than
John or the rabbis. If I object to the way they're
pushing me into this affair, it's only because I've
been dreaming, in my bed at night, of doing something
like this on my own. But I waited too long . . . and
now it's God who's going to get all the credit. May-
be God thinks I really thought it up all by myself.
Maybe God's jealous because I thought Of it first . . .
maybe this is His revenge.

SUSANNA. Judith!

JUDITH. As for my sweetness. Let me kiss you for that.
NO, look at me. Now am I really the one you give to
those poor young men I've driven into your arms? Is
this the way you talk to them? Farewell to my soft
skin. Farewell to my lips. How much easier it is to
say goodbye to a sister than to your own image in the
mirror.

SUSANNA. Judith!

73

JUDITH. And now I must leave you.
SUSANNA. No, no!

JUDITH. Stupid woman, can't you recognize the voice Of
God when it speaks?

SUSANNA. You're not going out like that, without a cloak?
JUDITH. I don't want my uncle to know I'm leaving.

SUSANNA. Here, take mine. You.will be wading through
streams, pushing through the brush.

JUDITH. Is the street still full of peOple?

SUSANNA. The streets are empty now, but the whole town is
watching. They're looking out their windows, waiting
for Judith to pass. Even the children have been
allowed to stay up late to watch.

JUDITH. It's time the children went to bed. How do I
look?

SUSANNA. The way you always look, Judith.

JUDITH. The way I always look! Thank you, Susanna. May
Judith look tonight as she has always looked. What a
compliment for all the other days of my life.

(JUDITH leaves.)

SUSANNA. John! John!
(JOHN enters.)

JOHN. Has she gone? You know what to do? DO you remem-
ber the shortcut?

SUSANNA. Esther is going with me. She crosses the lines
almost every night on business.

JOHN. 'You have plenty Of time. I sent Judith the long
way around.

(Exit SUSANNA. THE PROPHET appears in the window and
calls again for JUDITH to save the city. JOHN runs
to the window, grabs THE PROPHEY, drags him into the
room, throws him on floor, and kills him.

JOHN. Now, youfve been saved!

CURTAIN

74

ACT TWO

(An anti-chamber in.HOLOFERNES'S tent. URI and OTTA,
two aides de camp, are joking with SARAH the procuress;
EGON, another aide de camp, enters. In the back-
ground are a few guards and a giant negro named YAMI.)

(Laughter as EGON, a painted, manicured and effe-
minate Officer, enters.)

OTTA. Egon! Come in! Sarah has an idea!

EGON. And it's about time, Sarah. The Officers are
beginning tO complain. It seems that your merchandise
no longer satisfies them.

SARAH. It's the best I can Offer.

EGON. Your best is no longer good enough. Two months ago
you brought us girls who were not only curious to
learn but also plump enough to teach. But, ever
since this beastly famine in the city, we get nothing
but their older sisters.

OTTA. More like their mothers.
URI. NO, their grandmothers.

OTTA. And all they want is food. They rush for the
kitchen like a pack of dogs.

EGON. It's your widows who are the worst offenders.
Either they are cold as icicles or else so wanton
that a soldier loses his self-respect by Obliging them.

URI. It's Obvious you weren't born to your profession.
SARAH. Certainly not! I'm a direct descendant of Jacob.

EGON. Sarah, you amaze me. Ever since we've come to
this country we've had nothing but famous names to
serve us, whether it's to Open the secret gates at
night or furnish young boys for our pleasure. If the
descendants Of Jacob can't even be satisfactory pro-
curers Of women, what good does it do them to have
him as an ancestor?

OTTA. This is the night that Jacob redeems himself.

EGON. Well, Sarah! And what entertainment do you Offer
tonight to celebrate the destruction of your city?

75

SARAH. A comedy.

EGON. But we've seen what you call comedy! Naked women
with national emblems tattoo'd on their navels, danc-
ing under colored lights. The only person who's not
bored to death with them is the minister of war. I
was hoping you'd have something more substantial.

SARAH. The funniest scene that a Jewess ever played in
the theatre, or ever will play, if you kill them all
tomorrow morning.

EGON. Nonsense, the theatre will never see the last Of
Jewish actresses -- Sarah! Who is this Jewess? Is
she here?

SARAH. She is on her way.

EGON. She looks like you, I suppose?
SARAH. She is twenty years Old.
EGON. Another beggar, I suppose?

SARAH. Her father is a millionaire. For three centuries
her forefathers have been lending, renting and steal-
ing to make a pedestal of gold for this wonder of
charity and generosity to stand on.

EGON. Then why is she coming to see you?

SARAH. She is not coming to see me. She's coming to see
Holofernes.

EGON. If you and this Jewess are plotting trouble . . .

SARAH. I did not arrange this visit. In fact, I had
nothing to do with it. It's the peOple of Israel who
send her. According to their prophets, they can be
saved only if the fairest and purest girl in the city
comes to Holofernes, unescorted. Everybody thinks that
this is the girl the prOphets were talking about. And,
since she agrees with them, she's on her way.

EGON. This is more like it, providing she has some flesh
on her!

SARAH. There is scarcely a hint of hair and when Judith
cries, even when she perspires, it is like dew at
sunrise. And she was born rich.

EGON. Judith? Did you say ”Judith?”

76

SARAH. Why, do you know her?

EGON. That girl who bribed the Arab porters to massacre
the Officers Of the guard last week, what was her
name?

SARAH. It's the same girl.

EGON. And she dares come here after butchering our dear-
est friends? Otta, remember how poor Lamia looked
with his head split Open and that green slime in his
mouth?

SARAH. At last my comedy is beginning to interest you!

EGON. SO she's coming here! The girl who made green
slime Of a hero's blood is coming here! I can hardly
wait the pleasure. What refinements of torture have
you prepared to welcome our guest?

SARAH. There is only one for a girl like this: humiliation!
May I bring her in?

EGON. If you must. The King is resting in the rear of the
tent.

SARAH. Then you sit there, on the royal throne. Uri, hand
me the cloak.

EGON. Holofernes's cloak? You want her to think that I
am Holofernes?

SARAH. Of course. She'll come in trembling with fear.
Obsessed with the idea that she is a queen facing a
great king. Encourage her, she'll play the Queen of
Sheba for you. She'll plead the cause Of love and
virtue in front of a modern.SOlomon.

EGON. But why me?

SARAH. Because you can talk. I told you she was a vir-
gin. That means that above everything else she will
be very talkative. And remember, all Israel believes
in this girl. The people are spending the night on
the parapets waiting.

EGON. Waiting? -- for what?

SARAH. For morning -- when she will walk out Of here,
followed by a penitent Holofernes.

OTTA. Now Egon, do you understand your part in this

77

comedy?
EGON. I can always understand revenge.
OTTA. You know, in the royal cloak, you look good.

EGON. In a royal cloak anyone looks good! It's the most
flattering garment yet invented by man. Otta, remem-
ber how poor dear Lamia died? The anguish of that
beautiful body torn by two deaths at once? One side
of him swollen until he looked more like a giant
tomour than a man. The other side, still slim, con-
trolled and dignified, even to the impeccable grace
of a smile on his lips. Tonight only the slim beau-
tiful half of Lamia shall stand by my side. No,
Lamia, the other side, please! Is the woman ready to
present herself?

SARAH. She is coming.
EGON. How do you know?

SARAH. We've had spies on her trail from the moment she
left the city.

EGON. And where did she enter the camp?

SARAH. Near the stream where your enemies made their last
attack. The water is polluted with blood, but this
girl bent down to drink and quenched her thirst.

EGON. Lamia! She drinks blood.

SARAH. She is now approaching the royal tent. Now she
accosts the guard and asks for Holofernes.

EGON, to the guard. Bring in this creature, this canni-
bal of pride!

URI. But what about us? What do we do when she comes in?

SARAH. It's very simple. The rest Of us will curse and
insult the girl. Egon will be fascinated by her
words. Bit by bit, he will let her seduce him into
sparing the city.

EGON. She can kiss me, but that's all. One kiss.

URI. Egon! How courageous of you!

EGON. That's because of Lamia. Lamia liked women too.

78

But only those who were blond like him. Sarah, I hope
this Judith is not a blond. I hope she hasn't put on
a lot of paint, just to soften poor Lamia's heart.

SARAH. See for yourself, Great King!

(JUDITH enters. EGON and the Officers pretend not to
notice her entrance. They continue laughing and jok-

ing.)
JUDITH. I am here, Holofernes!

URI. Who dares pronounce the name of the King? Who is
this creature so ignorant of the law that she knows
not it is forbidden to touch the king, even with a

word?
JUDITH. She can tell you who I am.

SARAH. Ah? SO Judith condescends to recognize Sarah!
Sarah has come up in the world since Judith threw her
out of the house, hasn't she?

OTTA. What brings her to us? Hysteria? Hunger, thirst?
Does she wish a drink?

JUDITH. I quenched my thirst in the stream outside your
camp. .

EGON. What did she say?

SARAH. I believe she said she just had a drink of water
flavored with Jewish blood, so that she may be as
courageous as her brothers. It's what they call a
noble thought.

EGON. If it is to recite noble thoughts that you've come
to us, my dear, you are wasting your time. Noble
thoughts never do anyone any good until centuries
after they are said. And even then the only peOple
who have any time for them are actors playing in
tragedies.

SARAH. She's acting now.

EGON. Please, save it for the theatre! I'm so rarely
touched! If you knew how many women have played this
scene before my eyes, wives trying to rescue their
husbands from my clutches, sisters tendering vials of
poison to their beloved brothers after drinking half
of it themselves with a sad little smile on their

79

faces. Such noble thoughts! Such superlative ges-
tures! I'm familiar with the whole repertory, but
I've never been touched -- here! So you drank the
water in Esau's stream? You were quite free to do
so, you know. Only please don't come boasting about
it to me. What is your name?

JUDITH. Judith.
EGON. Sarah, who is Judith?

SARAH. My Lord, she is a virgin. There has never been
a virginity that was petted and desired at closer
quarters, but it is a virginity just the same. She
has a certificate from the Grand Rabbi to prove it.
Would you like to see for yourself?

EGON. Touch her, Sarah, and I'll have you whipped! At
least she is pleasant to look at, and considerably
less emaciated than your usual recruits.

SARAH. I don't know how she does it. The others dry up
with hunger. She thrives on it. I think she nourishes
herself on the grandeur of the times.

EGON. We have plenty of that to give her. Princess! How
dare you show yourself like this? Humm? That per-
fume around you! Is that the royal scent of Judah?

SARAH. No, my Lord. That's the aroma of the city bank.
I told you, she's rich. But there she stands, cap-
tive and broken and shattered with fear.

EGON. Oh no, Sarah, you are mistaken. I recognize
courage when I see it.

SARAH. She's afraid, I tell you. See how stiff and pale
she is. See, she's afraid to Open her mouth. It's
not always so easy, is it, dearie? Sometimes those
great big words seem out Of place.

EGON. One more of them out of you, Sarah, and I'll turn
you over to Uri. What brings you to our tent, my dear?

JUDITH. I wanted to see a great King, face to face.

EGON. I trust you see him just the way you imagined him
to be.

JUDITH. I'm not sure exactly how I imagined him. But I
do know that when I left I was despondent, and now I
am hOpeful.

80

 

Sarah: "My Lord, she [Judith] is a virgin. There
has never been a virginity that was petted
and desired at closer quarters, but it is
a virginity just the same. She has a cer-
tificate from the Grand Rabbi to prove it.
Would you like to see for yourself?"

81

EGON. Because of something you see in my eyes? The way
I curl my hair?

JUDITH. Something in the way you speak.
SARAH. There, you see! Flattery!

EGON. Something that makes it more soft, I suppose?
More trusting?

JUDITH. NO. But underneath the harsh hypocritical tones
of a ruler, I do sense a kind Of playfulness. And
then there is a curiosity in you which is very ens
couraging.

EGON. Beware of your intuitions, my child. Holofernes
has made a thousand promises during his life. Once
he promised the Queen of Aleppo to spare her eldest
son if only the great lady would prostitute herself
to a donkey. Another time he promised the God of
Phoenicia to spare His temple if only He would
materialize himself in the form Of a man. The Queen
obliged the donkey and the God of Phoenicia appeared
in person. I killed the Queen's son and I burned the
God's temple to the ground.

SARAH. That's because neither the Queen nor the God was
like Judith!

JUDITH. Then you couldn't have been the real Holofernes,
not the one I want to speak with tonight.

EGON. Speak then! He is listening.

URI. My Lord! It's this girl or us! You'll have to make
your choice.

EGON. Silence! I have already chosen.

OTTA. But it's late, my Lord! There is scarcely time to
read our reports.

EGON. Speak, girl, in.whose name do you come to us?

JUDITH. Just that. DO you know the difference between a
girl and a woman?

EGON. A girl is what Sarah was, a long time ago. She is
what once all those women were who are the scourge of
the earth.

JUDITH. DO you know what it means to be a girl?

82

EGON. Everybody knows that, except the girls themselves.
Once a girl knows it, she is no longer one of them.
She's a woman.

JUDITH. Then I am the exception. Because I know what I
am, and I'm not a woman.

EGON. Let's say that you are not a woman yet, but that
you are well prepared for the grotesque act which will
make you one.

JUDITH. To remain a girl, my Lord, is to be driven by a
blind force that inures you to pain, unhappiness and
suffering. All in the hOpe that some day you will
encounter grandeur in the form of another human being.

EGON. I hope, my dear, that you.don't expect to find that
here. Grandeur belongs to tragedy, and tragedy is for
those who have been defeated. Grandeur is the con-
solation prize the gods Offer to the victims, just be-
fore they lose their heads on the altar.

JUDITH. Holofernes! Spare the people Of Israel, and
your name will be praised with theirs for all eternity!

OTTA. Really now! Only a Jewess could take eternity as
seriously as all that!

EGON. Goodness me, Judith, don't you think I've already
heard all the arguments one could invent for sparing
your peOple? Besides, I do not have much love for
women.

SARAH. ‘You'd never guess it tonight. Touch her, my Lord.
Touch her with your hands!

EGON. Uri, take that woman away and whip her!

SARAH. But, my Lord, what have I said? What have I done?
EGON. You.have insulted my guest.

SARAH. Pity, my Lord! I was joking!

OTTA. It's not right to whip her, my Lord, not if she was
only joking!

EGON. Let Judith decide. If Judith takes pity on you,
you shall be spared.

SARAH. Judith! Pity me!

83

EGON. One word, one move of her hand and Judith can save
you. (JUDITH remains silent and motionless.) Very
well, that's settled.

OTTA. Take care, my Lord. Embrace that virgin and you'll
produce a new race of usurers and prOphets.

EGON. It is for you to take care, Otta. Who do you
think I am that you can talk to me in this manner?
What sort of man are you to forget that today we
commemorate the passing Of our dear lamented Lamia?
Lamia, who owed so much to this Jewess! In his name,
Judith, we listen.

JUDITH. Then listen carefully, my Lord, for the love of
this man Lamia, just as if he were standing there be-
hind you.

EGON. He is, indeed. At least, half of him. All right
Judith, we are listening. NO, come here. Closer.
Don't you think we've played this comedy long enough?

JUDITH. Comedy?

EGON. I lied to you, Judith. I knew you were coming.
And not from the mouth Of that Old procuress, but from
the mouths Of those exquisite young men who screamed
your name as we tore them apart, limb by limb. One
would think that the whole army of Israel existed
only to defend that name. And now here you are, a
prisoner in my tent. It wasn't I who invented the
story that you would save the Jews by coming here.
And yet, my dear, don't you think it possible that the
same popular imagination which can so Often distill
the wisdom of whole volumes of philOsOphy into a
single proverb may have seen through the confusion of
history, and simplified the great struggle Of na-
tions and armies by identifying the two real adver-
saries: you and me. Perhaps this war against the Jews
cannot end except in a duel which sees the two of us,
the real antagonists, face to face. And so here we
are. And so the war is ended! Otta, call the general
staff. Tomorrow we move north to attack the Phoeni-
cians. And you, Judith, are free to go home.

JUDITH. Go home?

EGON. Hurry home, my child, and tell the Jews how you
saved the city. Uri, will see you safely through the
lines. Uri, do you understand? And tell your peOple
what it is like to treat with a barbarian.

84

JUDITH. But . . .

EGON. Yes, my dear, you are very attractive, but we have
no taste for your charms. And besides, I'm not in
the mood.

JUDITH. My Lord.

EGON. Wait! Am I wrong in thinking that you.might be
able to conquer your aversion, bring your face close
to mine, and gently implant a sisterly kiss on my
forehead?

JUDITH. I could.
EGON. Well then, do!

(Distrustfully, JUDITH approaches EGON and kisses him
on the forehead. Suddenly, she grabs him and kisses
him passionately on the mouth. Cries of mockery from
the others. JUDITH pushes EGON away as they surround
her. She raises her hand with a dagger.)

EGON. The little bitch! She might have hurt me. Uri,
take her away!

SARAH. Imbecile! Where did you think you were? In the
court Of love? What a fine picture Of Jewish intelli-
gence you've given these men, mistaking a pederast with
his painted lips and long eyelashes for King Holo-
fernes!

EGON. Uri! Take her away, she's yours. Do what'you like
with her.

URI. NO.

EGON. DO you hear. I'm giving her to you.
URI. NO.

EGON. You refuse?

URI. Yes.

SARAH. Give the girl to me, Egon. I can use her. Didn't
you notice how nicely she's learned to kiss?

EGON. No. We are going to avenge poor Lamia, and right
here.

SARAH. Why don't you cry for help, Judith? Call for

85

your soldiers! Call for the prophets! Or better yet,
call for God!

JUDITH. Holofernes! Holofernes! Holofernes!

(The curtains part at the rear Of the tent, flooding
the stage with light. HOLOFERNES appears.)

EOLOFERNES. Take that woman out of my sight and kill her!
SARAH. But, Holofernes, what have I dont?

HOLOFERNES. Let's say that you mispronounced my name.
That should suffice.

SARAH. Pity, my Lord! It was Egon's idea!

HOLOFERNES. Then we'll start your little comedy all over
again, only this time in earnest. We'll ask this
young girl if she wants to pity you.

SARAH. Pity, Judith!

HOLOFERNES. One word, one move of her hand, and Judith
can save you.

SARAH. Save me, Judith! Don't let them kill me.
(JUDITH does not move.)

HOLOFERNES. Take her away! Besides she's a Jew. We
should have killed her long ago.

SARAH. You think you'll kill us all, don't you? Israel
will live, despite you, the Messiah will come and
He'll rule over us. And it won't be because of a
stupid bourgeois who walks around boasting she's still
a virgin. It will be because of Sarah, mistress Of
whores! Take this city, burn it! But you'll never
kill all the Jews, because for weeks and weeks I've
been smuggling the young ones through your lines to
safety in the hills. That's where they've gone, your
playmates. But they'll come back. They'll come back
and build again and they'll live to spit on your name!

HOLOFERNES. Poor Sarah! Every night you smuggled them
out of the city, and every morning I'd have to send
fresh horsemen to pursue the caravan and exterminate
its Jewish cargo.

SARAH. Murderer! (She hurls herself onto HOLOFERNES.)

86

HOLOFERNES. Now leave us alone. All Of you!

(All leave except HOLOFERNES and JUDITH. He contem-
plates her. Then, after a silence . . .)

HOLOFERNES. It's as if they come through the air on
wings . . .

JUDITH. . . .

HOLOFERNES. . . . or come burrowing through the ground
like moles. Just when a man least expects to see a
woman, there she comes. Flying, burrowing, bringing
some new note of sweetness or pain he never heard
before.

JUDIm. O O O

HOLOFERNES. And that's about the sum of what I've learned
during ten years Of military conquest. The really
great adventure comes to those who look themselves in
their tents. While the philosopher meditates, or the
banker audits his books, or the general pores over his
maps, alone at their desks these men weave an invisible
web Of thought. And, suddenly, in the next room they
hear someone struggling. It's a woman, caught in the
web. And then all the man has to do is gently un-
tangle her with his two hands. But where on earth
did this one come from, the most perfect Of all?

JUDITH. From a battlefield, where men are dying.

HOLOFERNES. I can never remember how a woman slips away
from me, disappears from my life, but I never forget
a single detail of how she first crosses my path. The
dress she was wearing, the time of day, the first smile.
When she leaves, she's like all the rest, but when she
comes to me, she's like no other creature on earth.
But how different you are from the others, Judith.
More different than I would ever have thought possi-
ble. If you'd like to powder your nose, tidy your
hair 0 O 0

JUDITH. After what they did to me, I'm ready for any-
thing that comes.

HOLOFERNES. Even for love?

JUDITH, with horror. Egon touched me. I'm no longer
worthy.

87

HOLOFERNES. Wipe away that rouge from the corner of your
mouth, and Egon will disappear from your face. Would
you like it if I also wiped him Off the face of the
earth?

JUDITH. Oh, no, let him live. Let his filthy marks stay
to shame me as long as I live.

HOLOFERNES. Nonsense! You know very well he'll disappear
the first time you wash your face.

JUDITH. DO you think that, after what God has done to me,
I can ever show the world my face again? I've been
shamed, Holofernes. Burned with shame! I can still
feel them, Egon's lips, like a white brand on my
burning face.

HOLOFERNES. It's the brand that burns, the face is white.
Here, let me wipe it Off.

JUDITH. You'll never wipe Off the false kiss God gave me.
His is worse than Egon's.

HOLOFERNES, kissing her lightly. We'll take care of
Egon's first. There! The face is clean, washed
clean. It looks as if we've washed Off the other
ones too, the ones your boy friends must have left
there. Anger is the best thing in the world to bring
back a look of outraged virginity to a woman's face.
It takes anger to reveal her secret.

JUDITH. What is my secret?

HOLOFERNES. The secret behind those cold dry eyes . . .
JUDITH. Yes, what is it?

HOLOFERNES. Sweetness.

JUDITH. Sweetness! Didn't you feel the dagger under my
cloak?

HOLOFERNES. Like a part of your body. But it's the only
part of that body that wishes me harm. The rest is
love.

JUDITH. I've abandoned myself to hatred.

HOLOFERNES. Yes, yes, I know there are complications.
But there are times, Judith, when the only place in
life we can get a foothold is in the glorious void of
‘pleasure. Is that what you seek? Is that what you

88

want from me?

JUDITH. The only way I can get a foothold now is to de-
base myself. Do you think that all Israel and God
Himself have been flattering me, pampering me, for
twenty years just to throw me into a trap like this?
And even if they have I refuse to accept it. Body
and soul, buried in shame!

HOLOFERNES. But we just wiped that Off! Or don't you like
me the way I am? DO I have to disappear and make way
for a third Holofernes? You wanted to see me. Here
I am. You wanted to talk to me. I'm listening. Now,
what is it?

JUDITH. Nothing. Nothing, anymore.

HOLOFERNES. Aren't you going to tell me about that God
Of yours?

JUDITH. Let Him talk for Himself. He's big enough.

HOLOFERNES. But if you were to speak for him I might
listen more sympathetically. I've always cared most
for Gods that are weak, the ones whose divinity de-
pends on the love men give them. And what about your
brothers? When you left them a few hours ago, didn't
you promise to work for their salvation?

JUDITH. That was a thousand years ago.

HOLOFERNES. But they're still alive, waiting to be saved.
They're still out there, crying for you. Listen!
You can hear them from here.

JUDITH. I no longer understand their language. And I'm
ashamed that I ever spoke it. Yes, they're singing,
I know the song by heart. That's me they are singing
about, pure as the lamb, brave as the lion. I'm sick
of words. I've said the last one I'll ever say!

HOLOFERNES. NO, you must talk. There is nothing to fear,
so long as we are in the tent.

JUDITH o I dOn' t mderStando

HOLOFERNES. You understand only too well. You are
beginning to guess where you are.

JUDITH. Where am I?

89

HOLOFERNES. What does it feel like?

JUDITH. An island. A clearing in the woods.
HOLOFERNES. You see, you knew all the time.
JUDITH. What did I know?

HOLOFERNES. That this is a place where there is no such
thing as God.

JUDITH. Where? Here?

HOLOFERNES. These thirty square yards of tent! One of
the rare corners Of life where we humans are really
free! This poor universe Of ours is infested with
deities, Judith. From.Greece to the Indies, from
north to south, there isn't a country that doesn't
swarm with them, each with his own particular evils,
his own particular Odors. They are the air you
breathe from the first day you enter the world. But
there are still some places Off limits to them. This
is one of those places. Here you are untouched by
original sin. Here you have no need for prayers or
singing hymns. I see you are beginning to guess who
I am.

JUDITH. Who are you?

HOLOFERNES. I am what in this God-infested world only
the King Of Kings dares to be: a man. The first one
if you like. A man Of the world, Of this world,
friend of nature and enemy Of God. What is a pretty
girl like you.doing with all those psalm singers,
anyway? Think how sweet life could be if you were
freed from fears and had no need for prayers. Think
what life would be like if man were really innocent.

JUDITH. SO it's innocence you Offer me!

HOLOFERNES. I offer you, for tonight and for as long as
you like, the gift of utter simplicity and the calm
that goes with it. I'm Offering you the same words
you used as a child. Words as simple as "apples”
and "oranges.” And inside there are no gods to
spoil the fruit, like worms eating away at the core.
I Offer you songs instead Of litanies. Listen.
Sounds like those come to rest naturally around us
instead of being sucked up to the clouds by that
vacuum in the heavens. I Offer you pleasure, Judith.
And that is a word that makes the image of God
disappear . . .

9O

 

 

Holofernes: "I am what in this God-infested

world only the King of Kings dares to be:

a man. The first one if you like. A man
of the world, of this world, friend Of
nature and enemy Of God. What is a pretty
girl like you [Judith] doing with all those
psalm singers anyway? Think how sweet life
could be if you were freed from fears and
had no need for prayers. Think what life
would be like if man were really innocent."

91

JUDITH. He has a way Of reappearing afterwards awfully
fast. Hadn't we better hurry?

HOLOFERNES. Hurry? Certainly not! Do you think there
is any lovelier sight than a woman stripped naked of
godliness! Still coltish in her new-found freedom!
How beautiful you are, Judith . . . and, suddenly,
so unadorned! That's the truth your whole body is
crying out to me. What is it, Judith? What is it
you want?

JUDITH. To lose myself!

HOLOFERNES. Your body says the same thing, but more
gently.

JUDITH. Then I shall not listen to my body.

HOLOFERNES. Your body tells me that it is tired, that it's
going to fall to the ground with its own weight unless
a man puts his arms around it so tightly it can scarce-
ly breathe. Your body wants to be God! What do you
want?

JUDITH. To be insulted, beaten, reviled, torn to pieces
and desecrated!

HOLOFERNES. Both of you shall be obliged.

JUDITH. No. Not yet!
(OTTA appears in the doorway Of the tent.)

OTTA. My Lord, Judith is waiting outside.

HOLOFERNES. What did you say?

OTTA. There is a woman outside who says her name is
Judith. I told her you were resting, but she insists
on seeing you tonight.

HOLOFERNES. Two Holofernes. and now two Judiths! What
shall we do with this new Judith?

JUDITH. I know who she is. Let her come in and you can
choose between us.

(A gesture out of the door from OTTA. SUSANNA enters.)
HOLOFERNES. SO you are Judith?
SUSANNA. Yes.

92

JUDITH. Then why don't you say so? We have no other way
of knowing it.

SUSANNA. I am Judith.

JUDITH. You are also Esther, Madeleine or Rose. Must
we go over all that again? Now that we've seen you,
you may go.

SUSANNA. Not without you.

HOLOFERNES. What does she want?

JUDITH. She wants to save me from you.

HOLOFERNES. You want to save Judith? Is she in danger?

SUSANNA. Yes, but not the danger I anticipated.

JUDITH. You thought you'd find me on my knees, screaming
for mercy in front of a bearded ogre, didn't you?

SUSANNA. I did not expect to interrupt a love scene.
JUDITH. . . . written a long time ago by God.

SUSANNA. This is not the way they imagine the scene back
in the city. They see Judith on.her knees, pleading
with a monster.

HOLOFERNES. Oh? And what do you think it is that stands
before her? Every girl gets the monster she deserves.

SUSANNA. What stands in front Of her? That's Obvious:
the first man who's ever made Judith feel. She was
sent here by God. But now, it's a man who keeps her
here. Holofernes, you.must save it!

HOLOFERNES. What am I supposed to save now?

SUSANNA. The honor of the world.

HOLOFERNES. You.mean.Judith's virtue?

SUSANNA. Today they are the same thing.

HOLOFERNES. My dear young lady, there will be plenty of
girls to take Judith's place. Nothing reproduces it-
self so quickly as a virgin.

SUSANNA. She is not the real Judith. Why, I'm more
Judith than she is -- me. And I am only a pale imi-

93

tation of what she was yesterday. In all the city
she is the only one who isn't Judith tonight. And
that goes for women, children, Old men, as well as
the heroes of the army.

JUDITH. Those heroes sent me here.
SUSANNA. But I came to save you.

JUDITH. Now, God's envoy unveils her holy secret. She
is jealous of Holofernes!

SUSANNA. Silence her, my Lord, I beg you.
HOLOFERNES. I find this very interesting.

JUDITH. There's your rival, Holofernes. If you want me,
you'll have to take me from her.

SUSANNA. Pity her, my Lord. You may not believe in.God
but you must believe in beauty, human beauty. She's
suddenly seen herself naked, stripped Of sainthood,
and now she wants to destroy herself.

HOLOFERNES. If it's human, beauty has nothing to fear
from me, not at a moment like this. On the contrary.

SUSANNA. Judith! Remember Israel!

JUDITH. Israel! As far as Israel is concerned, Judith
came to Holofernes. That's the extent Of her res-
ponsibility to her people, God and their prOphets.
From this point on, fate works for or against the Jews
quite apart from anything Judith may do. Neither
Holofernes nor poor miserable Judith can do anything
for them.

SUSANNA. That's blasphemy!

JUDITH. God is only interested in the way things look.
Appearance, not the details! God asks us to dress up
our acts, make them look like sacrifices. But under-
neath the appearance He leaves us free to satisfy
our own desires, the lowest of them. Why, any street-
walker in the city would know the difference between
the real Holofernes and his servant. But not
Judith-the-saint! God wants to destroy me. Well,

I won't let him. I shall destroy myself!

SUSANNA. Do you hear that, Holofernes? Don't think for
one moment that you have seduced this girl. If she
Comes to you, that's because she is disgusted with life.

94

JUDITH. Not with life. With women like you!

SUSANNA. And what about men like John?

JUDITH. Women like him too! Everything that's ever
touched me before tonight seems to have been of my
own sex.

SUSANNA. Praise be to Holofernes! The only man in the
world! Choose, Judith -- Holofernes or God!

(Exit SUSANNA.)
HOLOFERNES. Into my arms, Jewess!
JUDITH. I am the Jewess.
HOLOFERNES. That's a word we Assyrians reserve for insults.

JUDITH. King though you may be, that insult makes this
Jewess your equal tonight.

HOLOFERNES. You don't know all the unpleasant things it

means to us: greed, poverty, blood that beats stronger
with fear than with appetite.

JUDITH. It is also the word for generosity and courage.
Only a Jewess knows the force of a human embrace.

HOLOFERNES. That's something I'd like to learn.
JUDITH. God inspires only those who believe in.Him.
HOLOFERNES. . . . and so puts them under a curse.
JUDITH. God's never found any other way of singling out
one race or one person except to put them under a
curse. The day God learns to smile, my peOple will
not only be chosen, they will also be blessed.
HOLOFERNES. Bravo, Judith! When you.marry, what won-
derful conversation you'll serve your husband for
breakfast -- if they let you live that long.
JUDITH. They? Judith!

HOLOFERNES. Now, you're not going to kill yourself!
Purity, my dear, is only a word.

JUDITH. I am not pure.
HOLOFERNES. NO?

95

JUDITH. DO you think that a virgin could have crossed
that battlefield and come here, alone, to face the
unknown?

HOLOFERNES. What else is there for virgins to face?

JUDITH. I gave myself to the man I love, just before I
left the city.

HOLOFERNES. You've never loved anyone. Yesterday you
were in love with the world in general. Today you
detest it in detail. Besides, women like you abhor
giving themselves for love, at least when it's the
first time. You prefer to be taken by force.

JUDITH. There is no force but the force of God.

HOLOFERNES. But God has a way Of delegating His powers.
I've already acted as God's agent on several occa-
sions.

JUDITH. This time you are going to be surprised.

HOLOFERNES. I shall not be surprised, I assure you. A .
woman is a creature who has discovered her own nature.
You are still looking for yours. You are a virgin.

JUDITH. It's my nature to explore.

HOLOFERNES. That's not true. You won't know what you are
really like until tomorrow morning. Miserly or spend-
thrift, angel or shrew, you don't yet know. From my
couch you will get up with your first born child ~-
yourself. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Judith were to
wake up as a woman and discover that she is all
sweetness and loving submission?

JUDITH. I wouldn't count on it.

HOLOFERNES. . . . or if all those Jewish wedding chants
were suddenly to resolve into a single word: "Holo-
fernes," pronounced with tenderness.

JUDITH. Tenderness has nothing to do with a name like
that.

HOLOFERNES. No? Then.why did you call me? If you were
so afraid of Egon, why didn't you call on God for
help?

JUDITH, wiping her mouth. Only a man could help me.

96

HOLOFERNES. Yet I heard something I'd never heard before:
my name, pronounced like a beacon in the dark. You
called for me the way you'd call for a life guard to
jump off his post, dive into the water, and save you
from drowning.

JUDITH. And what can you save me from now?

HOLOFERNES. From everything that threatens to rob your
life of meaning.

I JUDITH. From love, too, I suppose?

HOLOFERNES. You know very well that if a single hair Of
my head displeased you, you'd find a means of breaking
away from me.

JUDITH. And if the shape of my ears or the spading Of my
teeth failed to meet your taste, would you be able to
say that we were destined to meet?

HOLOFERNES. 'You mean we like each other?

JUDITH. I mean my torment is complete. My duel with
Holofernes has turned into a love match between two
bodies, one fair and one bronzed by the sun.

HOLOFERNES. That God of yours never did believe in real
fights between real enemies. TO Him a fight is no
more than a scrap between two of His accomplices who've
had a falling out. And you can be sure that He de-
pends more on our getting along together than on our
mutual hatred. Come now. And silence!

JUDITH. Silence? How can I hate you in silence?

HOLOFERNES. Like this.

(He kisses her.)
Have you Often dreamed Of this moment, Judith?

JUDITH. Yes.

HOLOFERNES. Did you often imagine what it would be like?

JUDITH. I've spent my whole life thinking about it.

HOLOFERNES. And you don't want to wait any longer?

JUDITH. NO longer.

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HOLOFERNES. Because this is the high mark of your life?

JUDITH. This is as low as I'll ever sink. God has for-
saken me. I don't know why, but God has forsaken me.
He wants a girl to sacrifice herself. He pushes her
towards it. But when the moment comes, God can't
stand the details and He turns His head. I've been
too proud Of my virtue, Holofernes. Now God wants me
to throw it away, for nothing at all.

HOLOFERNES. For joy!

JUDITH. For nothing at all.

HOLOFERNES. Don't feel sorry for yourself. You are
probably the only girl in the world who has found a
way of fulfilling her mission. You'll soon see how
it is. God made little girls to be devoured by
monsters, and somehow the little girls always end up
giving themselves to some man. That's where, from
God's point Of view, they miss their calling.

JUDITH. And that's where I am different!

(A silence.)

HOLOFERNES beckons her to rear Of tent. JUDITH starts to
follow. HOLOFERNES, amused, turns. Yes, Judith?

JUDITH. Is there a woman.here?

HOLOFERNES. At this time of night there is only Daria.
Poor Old Daria. But I am afraid she won't be much
company to talk to. Daria is deaf and dumb.

JUDITH. If she were deaf, dumb and blind, just so she is
a woman.

HOLOFERNES. As you like, I'll send her to you.
(He claps his hands.)
Judith --
(Pause.)
It is you who come to me.
(Exit HOLOFERNES to rear of the tent. DARIA enters.)

JUDITH. You are Daria, aren't you? Yes, I know you can't

98

hear me and you have no tongue to talk with. What do
I want? Nothing, Daria. Just to spend one last
minute with a woman before I become one myself. May-
be it is just as well you cannot answer.

Are you a virgin, Daria? You look at me as if I were
asking if you could hear or speak. Poor Daria! You
are not very attractive. Your eyes don't even.have
any real kindness in them. But tonight you'll have
to be mother, sister, and myself to me. He took you
by force, I suppose, brutally? What if I were to
fight him Off? No! He can't soil me now. Since the
day God singled me out just because I was pure, I've
been soiled as much as I can ever be. Soiled by God
Himself! This may sound conceited, but I can say it
to you because you can't hear me. It's me God is
angry with. It's not Holofernes and it's not the Jews
in the city. All history is like that. Just God's
way of hiding the fact that He is tracking down one
poor lone creature to destroy her. And now He has me
cornered, Daria. He wins. In a few minutes He'll
have written the end of Judith's story. Or rather,
I'll be writing it Off for Him. If only He were a
monster, maybe I'd have the strength to resist.

Ah? Do you think so? It won't be unpleasant? Some-
thing half way between crucifixion and laughter? No,
don't Open the curtains yet. One minute more. All
right, now! How silent it is! A great kind waiting
for a wife . . . a girl waiting tO be reviled . . .

a people waiting to die . . . an army facing defeat

. . . such things produce a silence like this. One
would almost believe that God is also deaf and dumb!
May Jehovah pardon me, Daria. I know that what I've
been saying is blasphemy. But the day will come
when you'll find your tongue and that's the day when
the vengeance of heaven and the angels will fall on
those like me who have gone joyfully to their shame.

(JUDITH exits to rear of the tent.)
DARIA, laughing. And so amen!
CURTAIN

99

ACT RE

(Same as Act Two, SUSANNA is seated. Over her knees
is the dress JUDITH was wearing. One of HOLOFERNES'S
guards is stretched out on the bench, dead drunk.
JOHN enters, stealthily. As he comes through the
doorway we see the pale light of early morning behind
him.

SUSANNA. John!

JOHN. And did you think it was an archangel? The angels
will never be interested in Judith again, Susanna.
After last night, a man is the best she can eXpect.
Where are they?

SUSANNA. How did you get here?

JOHN. Sarah escaped. She's told them everything. All
Israel is up in arms against Judith for betraying
their trust. It wasn't hard to get in once Sarah
put the guards to sleep. They're drunk, all Of them.
Like this one.

(JOHN kicks the guard asleep on the bench.)

GUARD. Dead drunk!

SUSANNA. What are you going to do?

JOHN. Where the Jewess has failed only the Jew may
succeed. I suppose they are still asleep.

SUSANNA. Yes.
JOHN. Get Judith away from him, but quietly.
SUSANNA. But she's still asleep.

JOHN. Asleep! You say it so salmly! Judith is the only
child Of Israel who slept a wink last night.

SUSANNA. Don't shout!

JOHN. Susanna, if we came here this morning, it was not
to whisper like mourners around her marriage bed.
Ah! If it were weeping and wailing they wanted, I
could tell them tales of sorrow about this wedding
night!

SUSANNA. Not so loud, they'll hear you.

100

JOHN. All night I've seen it in my head, heard it buzzing
in my ears. (He is talking in whispers now.) Not a
detail in all its horror was spared my'imagination,
because I know Judith and I know what she is like.

Oh, Susanna, I'm so miserable!

SUSANNA. No more miserable than I am.
JOHN. We didn't deserve this. We loved her. What's that?

SUSANNA. Her dress.
JOHN. Then she'll come in here . . .

SUSANNA. But how do we know Holofernes won't come with
her?

JOHN. Because I know Judith. She'll squeeze every extra
dividend out of this crime. And that means waking up
next to him in the morning, pitilessly examining his
face while he is still sleeping. No, there is only
one sure way Of getting someone out Of the next room,
whether she's still asleep or not, and that is to
call her name.

(Shouting.)

Judith! Judith!

(JUDITH enters, wearing HOLOFERNES'S cape. John turns
away 0

SUSANNA. Is that you, Judith?
JUDITH. It's me, or almost me. What time is it?
(SUSANNA walks to doorway and pulls back the flap.)

SUSANNA. Look!

JUDITH. Yes, there's no doubt about that. A pincushion
of blood on the horizon. A cold wind blowing through
the hair of a poor soldier lying dead on the battle-
field. A sky all gangrene and gold, and a soldier
with a sword full Of rusty menace . . . and Judith
full of shame and happiness. As they say, it's the
dawn.

(She comes back into the room. JOHN turns, as if to
sneak out. JUDITH stops him.)

John!

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JOHN. "John!” Did you enjoy yourself last night?

SUSANNA. John, don' t!

JOHN. You're not as curious as I am, Susanna. Judith,
did you have a good night's sleep?

JUDITH. It was brief.
JOHN. And you are no longer . . .

JUDITH. NO longer.
JOHN. All Israel knows you have betrayed us.

JUDITH. I'm glad you know. I was trying to think of a
way to tell you.

JOHN. They have stoned your servants, burned your house.
Your uncle is wounded. The people curse your name.

JUDITH. I no longer belong to them.
JOHN. To whom do you belong? To Holofernes?
JUDITH. To death.

JOHN. Death is not far away. It's on its way here now.

JUDITH. And it's welcome! Draw your sword, if you like.
I'm ready for it.

JOHN. My sword has a cleaner mission to perform. But
unless you want to die, leave this place. The rabbis
are going to make one last effort to appease Holo-
fernes. The prophets have formed a procession. They
are on their way here now.

JUDITH. What't that to me?

JOHN. Even if Holofernes massacres them, here in this tent,
before they die they will find some way of punishing
you first, Judith. You.have been unfaithful to God.

JUDITH. You has been unfaithful, God or Judith? That's
something we don't yet know.

JOHN. Ah -- the panther has sharpened her claws!
JUDITH. Then for once in your life have the courage to

be a hunter instead of a mere soldier taking orders.
You.have a sword. Use it!

102

JOHN. He's in there, I suppose. Asleep!
JUDITH. Like a piece of marble. Silent and asleep.
JOHN. Then.God has not failed me!

(JOHN draws his sword. He disappears into HOLOFERNES'S
chamber at rear Of the tent.)

JUDITH. Poor John! He couldn't possibly understand what
has happened. But you do, Susanna. Youjve already
guessed.

(JOHN returns. Stands stunned in the doorway.)

JUDITH. . . .

(JOHN makes an attempt to move, but is transfixed.)

JUDITH. Put away your sword now.

(JOHN runs to JUDITH.)

JOHN. Judith, can you.ever forgive us? Blessed be every
hair on her head! Blessed be the hatred in Judith's
heart! I'll make myself worthy of you, Judith.

You'll see.

(He runs to HOLOFERNES'S chamber. SUSANNA kneels in
front Of JUDITH.)

JUDITH. You'll spoil your dress . . .
SUSANNA. Judith, you are a saint.
JUDITH. Get off your knees.

SUSANNA. You killed him.

JUDITH. Kill? Assassins kill.

SUSANNA. Even God knows no other word for what you've
done.

JUDITH. Then God has a very limited vocabulary. I hOpe
you understand why I killed him.

SUSANNA. You did it because God transformed you into
hatred itself!

JUDITH. Hatred? Do I look like hatred?

103

SUSANNA. A kind of hatred we've never seen before.

JUDITH. DO you really believe I could have killed him
out of hatred, at dawn, a few hours after he made me
his wife?

SUSANNA. I believe that Judith has been true to her
mission.

JUDITH. Far from it! The moment Judith struck that blow
was the moment she forgot who she was, where she came
from, and what she was supposed to do.

SUSANNA. But you are alive and he is . . .

JUDITH. If I am alive it is because I knew that sooner
or later the guards would kill me anyway . . . Now
that I have lived to tell my story, I want you to be
my witness before the judges when they arrive. I
want you to tell them that Judith's story did not
end in hatred. The truth is that what died in that
chamber was a man and a woman in love.

SUSANNA. But you killed him!

JUDITH. I'd been sleeping, Susanna. No more than a few
winks, but it was all the night to me. And then I
awoke, and for the first time in my life I saw myself
at dawn next to another human being. Everything had
already happened! Now all I could look forward to
was losing him . . . Even if it were possible to make
him mine, really mine in face of all the Jews and the
Assyrians. Even then every morning there would be
this awful moment when he'd rise, face this light,
leave me and go back to the world of living and
fighting. SO you see, there was no other way to keep
it perfect, the way it was last night. . . . Hasn't
the sight Of a sleeping body next to yours ever made
you think that perhaps murder is the tenderest and
most enduring embrace of all?

SUSANNA. That's what murderers call it. But for cen-
turies to come, Judith will be known to history as
the one chosen by God to kill a man she hated be-
cause he was the enemy Of her people.

JUDITH. Never! I'll tell them everything, Susanna.
Listen! Those voices . . . They're coming to punish
me. You'll tell them how it was, won't you? Please!
If I give you a kiss? You.won't recognize the kiss
I gave you last night. That was nothing at all.

104

SUSANNA. I refuse to listen.

JUDITH. All right, stOp up your ears. I don't need them.
Stupid that I am, there is a man in the room. Guard,
wake up!

SUSANNA . He ' s drunk.

JUDITH. Drunk or not, he has ears to hear with. And in
each ear there's a little hammer to beat on a little
anvil and make sound on a little drum. That's all I
need to transmit my story down through the ages.
Guard! .

GUARD. I'm asleep.

JUDITH. Asleep! Listen to me.

GUARD, half awake. Who says I'm asleep? Not on duty!

JUDITH. Wake up and I'll make it worth your while.

GUARD. Oh, a woman! Hurrah for women!

JUDITH. DO you know what this woman.has done?

GUARD. What has she done?

JUDITH. She has killed your King. She has killed Holo-
fernes.

GUARD. What did she do?

JUDITH. Killed.

GUARD. Killed him? Oh, that's bad!

JUDITH. DO you know why? Because she loved him!
GUARD. Because what?

JUDITH. Because she loved him.

GUARD. Loved him? Oh, that's good!

JUDITH. You see, Susanna!

GUARD, going back to sleep. You see Susanna!

JUDITH. I've hammered the truth into the head Of a
sleeping man. Some day it will come out again. May-

105

be it will take centuries, but it will come out again
to plague the generals and the rabbis. They're
coming here for me, aren't they? Can you see them
yet?

(SUSANNA goes to the entrance and looks out of the
tent.

GUARD, in his sleep. Because she loved him, she killed
Holofernes. But what was her name?

JUDITH, leaning over the guard. Judith!
GUARD. But why didn't Holofernes kill Judith?
JUDITH. Don't worry, Judith will be killed.
GUARD. That's good.

SUSANNA. It's the Jews! Joachim and the prophets are
leading the procession.

JUDITH. Let them come. Let them tie my hands, spit on
me, beat me, insult me with each lash of the whip!
That's what I want from them. And with each lash Of
the ship I'll lash back with my tongue. Blow for
blow, I'll make them listen to each joy I've known
until I am whipped unconscious.

(The Jews burst into the tent. JOACHIM, THE PROPHET
of Act One (anyone knows all prophets look alike),
and a group Of cantors. They speak in the rounded
liturgical tones of men who live in a world of
scriptures.) ‘

PROPHET. Praise be to Judith! Glory to her name!
FIRST CANTOR. Pray for me, Judith.
JUDITH. I don't understand.

JOACHIM. Hatred ruled in the heart of Judith and van-
quished the enemy of Israel. Israel shall be saved
and we prostrate ourselves at the feet of Judith.

SUSANNA, to Judith. Don't say a word.

FIRST CANTOR. Holofernes is already deserted by his
allies. Even now Lieutenant John runs in their camps
showing the severed head of the mighty King that
Judith killed.

106

SECOND CANTOR. We have captured whole caravans of food
and great casks of wine, and when.Judith gives the
word all Israel shall drink.

SECOND CANTOR. Judith is the bread we eat.

THIRD CANTOR. Judith is the water we drink.

JUDITH. Jews!

JOACHIM, intervening. What are you going to tell them?

JUDITH. The truth!

JOACHIM. They already know the truth. God's truth.
Judith's truth does not interest them now. Listen
to the cantors. Listen to what they know is true.
(The two CANTORS step forward.)

FIRST CANTOR. And for two days Judith did carry a sword
under her mantle. It did cut into her flesh with
each step she took, striking her knees like the pen-
dant of a temple bell.

SECOND CANTOR. And Judith did cross the field Of battle
before the moon did rise. And the better to find her
way she did follow the blood red stream of Esau like
an angry beast of prey. For hers was the righteous
wrath Of the Lord our God.

JUDITH. But God was no longer in her heart.

JOACHIM. Silence, girl!

CANTORS IN UNISON. ‘What does Judith say?

FIRST CANTOR. And Holofernes in his tent did have a
dream, and he turned from the whore who shared his
couch.

SECOND CANTOR. And Holofernes did turn away from the

Queen in Damascus crowned, who was painted and rouged
down to her heart.

FIRST CANTOR. He did turn from Pharoah's daughter.

SECOND CANTOR. From the hundred naked Muscovites dancing
lewd dances around his couch.

THIRD CANTOR. From the great tiger of Bengal, all gar-

107

landed with wreaths of arms and legs and human breasts.

TWO CANTORS IN UNISON. And it was then that Holofernes
saw Judith, fairest of the fair.

JUDITH. Lies! Myths! Legends for children! Holofernes
was alone, all alone like a priest at the altar.

JOACHIM. Silence, girl.
(Chanting like the CANTORS.)

”Judith alone, only Judith," the great king cried.
”Judith alone is sweetness and light.”

TWO CANTORS IN UNISON. Judith alone is balm. Only the
touch of Judith's hand, only the velvet touch of
Judith's hand caressing lightly from the knee . . .

FIRST CANTOR. And yet she was poison.

SECOND CANTOR. Hardened steel.

THIRD CANTOR. A trap with teeth of iron.

FIRST CANTOR. Vitriol.

SECOND CANTOR. With fangs Of a serpent.

SUSANNA. To sting with hatred when the moment came.

JUDITH. Susanna, that's a lie and you know it. Jews!
Listen to me!

JOACHIM, to CANTORS. Finish the psalm!
FIRST CANTOR. He did lay her naked on the couch.
SUSANNA. But God did cover her nakedness.

SECOND CANTOR. God didciothe her with air and with light.
Of transparence God made for Judith a veil.

JUDITH. That's not true!
JOACHIM to the CANTORS. The psalm! The psalm!

FIRST CANTOR. Naked he saw her on the couch and looked
into her face.

JOACHIM. Face to face, that's true, isn't it, Judith?

JUDITH. Is it true? Yes, it's true.

108

JOACHIM. Did you hear that? She says it's true!

CANTORS IN UNISON. Glory be to Truth, purest of the pure,
fairest of the fair!

SUSANNA, in the manner of the CANTORS. But suddenly God
did make the monster weak, weak in all his limbs.
And Holofernes no longer had the strength to possess
our Judith.

CANTORS IN UNISON. He did not possess her! He did not
possess her!

JUDITH, stepping forward. He did possess her! And she
was so full of love for him that there was no room for
anyone else, even for God!

FIRST CANTOR. What did She say?

JOACHIM. Silence!‘ Leave us. Judith wants to talk to me
alone.

JUDITH. NO, rabbis, don't go. It's on I want to talk
to. If you'd stop singing your tri a1 lies, I could
tell you the truth. This Jewess lay willingly with
Holofernes on his couch and pleasured herself.

ALL THE CANTORS. Don't say it, Judith! It's blasphemy!
JOACHIM. Judith, you are destroying us.

JUDITH. And it wasn't a couch like the one in your psalms.
It was a real bed with real pillows and real sheets,
and down feathers that blew through the air, mixing
memories of home and childhood with every excess of
passion.

THE PROPHEY. Vengeance!

JUDITH. She sought pleasure on that bed and pleasure she
got. And in the first chill of the morning she
awakened and piously pulled the corners over Holofernes
in the manner prescribed for the dutiful wife.

ALL THE CANTORS, wailing in unison. Lost, lost, all is
lost. The girl has destroyed us!

SUSANNA. It's true, rabbis, it's true! But it was I,
Susanna, who did these things. Not her! He never
touched her!

(JUDITH strikes SUSANNA. SUSANNA falls to the ground.)

109

JOACHIM. Outside! All of you! I must explain to Judith
how she is to act when we enter the city.

THE PROPHET. Then hurry, rabbi, Israel waits.
SECOND CANTOR. Israel waits.
PROPHET. Israel waits on the day of the prOphets.

(All leave except JOACHIM, JUDITH and the GUARD.)
GUARD. There goes Susanna.

(Silence while the group disappears out the doorway.)
JOACHIM. What are your conditions?
JUDITH. On what conditions will I tell a lie?

JOACHIM. On what conditions will you live and hold your
tongue?

JUDITH. DO I look like someone anxious to live and hold
her tongue?

JOACHIM. The slightest slip of that tongue and you deprive
the peOple of their miracle.

JUDITH. And the people must not be deprived of their
miracle!

JOACHIM. We quite understand that after what has happened
you may want to live apart in solitary contemplation.
You know the municipal palace in the gardens by the
lake? It's yours. We'll see to it that no one comes
to bother you, that no one ruffles your desire to
retire from the world. But you must come with us
this morning and walk at the head of the procession.

JUDITH. DO you really think that I could be satisfied
with a cottage in the park, magnolia trees and a
private beach? That is the sort Of thing a man gives
his mistress when she's outlived her usefulness.
Rabbi, I am twenty years old.

JOACHIM. How proud you are this morning!
JUDITH. And I suppose He's not proud!
Joachim. Who's that?

110

 

Joachim: "The slightest slip of that tongue

and you EJudith] deprive the peOple
of their miracle.”

111

JUDITH. God! I've killed a man in the name of someone
else, and now God writhes with jealousy. That
divine hypocrite, I can feel Him all around me,
grasping, trying to take all the credit for Himself.
If I were willing, He'd even accept me as His emissary
to the Jews, let me live in a palace by the lake, and
give me a halo to wear as long as I live. But I
know God! He'd only take it away from me later.

GUARD, in his sleep. She killed him because she loved
him.

JUDITH. Did you hear that?

JOACHIM. What?

JUDITH . The guard .

JOACHIM. You're hearing things. He didn't say a word.

JUDITH. Oh, yes he did. He told you.why I killed Holo-
fernes.

JOACHIM. Why you think you killed him. But what you
think doesn't matter now. My dear girl, the point is
that the deed is done . . . and done just the way
the church predicted it.

JUDITH. Did you also predict the joy it would bring me?

JOACHIM. Please! Spare us the details.

JUDITH. Did you spare me any details yesterday when you
were describing Holofernes the monster? That's what
is missing to drown your triumph, isn't it? You want
me to swear under oath that Holofernes was bestial
and deformed. Well, he wasn't. His eyes were clear,
his body was smooth and strong. There is only one
human word to . . .

JOACHIM. My dear girl, you forget we've seen his head on
the end of a stick.

JUDITH. I'll get even with John for that!

JOACHIM. If it's revenge you want, Judith, you must
live.

GUARD. Judith, Judith.

JUDITH, suddenly turning to the GUARD. What's that the

112

guard is saying?
JOACHIM. Nothing, I assure you. He's asleep.

JUDITH. Then why is he sitting up? Why does he stare at
me like that?

JOACHIM. You're imagining things. He's sound asleep.
Judith, your very hesitation is a crime against God,
since you hesitate between Him and His most hated
enemy.

JUDITH. I choose my own kind of hatred.
JOACHIM. Girl, girl! There is a limit to our patience.

JUDITH. Then lose your patience. God won't mind. Not
once since last night have I felt His presence in
this tent. I waited for Him to turn me into an arch-
angel. He didn't. But you got your miracle just the
same. Why is that man sitting up again? What does
he want?

JOACHIM. The man is sound asleep on the bench.
JUDITH. DO you think it's a reflection I see?

JOACHIM. Reflection of what? Stick to the subject,
Judith. Hasn't God given us exactly what we prayed
for? Us and you?

JUDITH. How do you know what I prayed for?

JOACHIM. Can you deny that a miracle has taken place,
and by your hands?

JUDITH. Your miracle is a fraud. God gave it to you
cheap with a minimum of innocence, and all because
I'm rich and spoiled and my name is great enough to
conceal the deception.

JOACHIM. You.want God to stay a virgin too? This is be-
yond all reason. You are destroying every means of
retreat and cutting yourself Off. Don't say more.
Suppose that . . .

(The two churchmen freeze in preposterous positions,
breaking their speeches in mid-sentence. Only JUDITH
is left alive on the strangely lighted stage. Slowly,
she turns to the bench where the drunken GUARD is
sleeping.)

113

(The GUARD sits up. Grins at JUDITH.)

GUARD. Excuse me, Judith. I don't want to butt in,
but . . .

JUDITH. Child of light, who are you?
GUARD. That's no way to talk to a guard.

JUDITH. But there's such a brightness and warmth about
you!

GUARD. Brightness? That's because we've reached the
moment when sour smells sweet, black is white, when
you say clear as mud and mean transparent.

JUDITH. NO, I see you as you really are, draped in
purples and gold . . .

GUARD. Oh, you're more perceiving than I thought. Very
well, Judith, it's just us now. A fight to the finish.

JUDITH. But why just us?

GUARD. Because you are God's enemy, Judith, and I know
exactly what holds to use on women like you.

JUDITH. I don't understand.

GUARD. Tell me, Judith, since you left home last night,
has that lovely body Of yours wanted for anything --
food, drink, or anything?

JUDIm. O O O

GUARD. NO, I think not. Did the bloody water Of Esau's
stream leave a stain on your dress? Did the mud on
the battlefield soil your sandals? Did the thistles
in the fields scratch your legs? Look at your hands.
Is there a trace of murder left on them? Yes, rub
them. See if you can make a spot of blood appear.
Rub away, my dear. As long as you live, Judith, your
hands will remain white and pure. Not a mark to mar
the perfection of your body.

JUDITH. And what about the mark, the mark made by Holo-
fernes?

GUARD. Even that can be disputed. You might as well
face it, Judith. You are still a virgin.

JUDITH. What right have you to talk to me like this?

114

GUARD. Obstinate girl! Ever since you left the city the
heavenly hosts have been beating their wings around
you,guiding you, pittying you, building a sacred
cathedral in the air over you. And, one after another,
you have forced them to turn away their faces. And
of all these hosts of heaven only I remain and I am
reduced to making myself visible -- vulgarly visible,
in the heavy, sweaty vestments of a drunken guards-
man.

JUDITH. Who are you? If you are God talking to me at
last, it is too late.

GUARD. DO you really think that God is ever going to talk
to you? Do you think that God is ever going to talk
to any man? NO, Judith, it is not in words that God
is articulate. Those chosen by Him are anointed with
thistle Oil, their ears ring with the silence Of the
night, they stumble across the battlefields and where
they pass even the dying cease to cry. In the streams
the cold water and hard pebbles flow silently around
their legs, and watchdogs turn the other way without
a single bark. Can you truthfully say you felt none
of this presence along your path last night?

JUDITH. Don't stOp. Tell me more.

GUARD. That's our message to Judith, fairest of Israel's
daughters, chosen by God.

JUDITH. Forgive me.

GUARD. Oh, so you can hear me now!

JUDITH. Forgive me.

GUARD. Tell Israel the truth and God will forgive you.
JUDITH. But what truth?

GUARD. That you killed the enemy of GOD just as God or-
dained, because you hated him.

JUDITH. But you know yourself that it is not so?
GUARD. Not so?
JUDITH. Weren't you there? Didn't you see what happened?

GUARD. Think back over your night, from the beginning.
When you entered the alcove, what did you see?

115

JUDITH. I saw a couch, that's all.

GUARD. Even God hesitates to ask a woman to stay on her
feet when she fights.

JUDITH. I went to him.

GUARD. And we rejoiced because we saw only your sharp
nails, your teeth, and every angle of your body.

JUDITH. And then I reached out to touch him and he was
real. It was a revelation to me!

GUARD. God does not Object if the divine voice occasion-
ally emanates from vulgar bodies or coarse skins.
But such things are only filters. God had long before
decided that Holofernes would never truly touch you
and He draped you in a transparent cloak. The angel
Michael was on your lips. Ephraim was the flower in
your hair. I was your right hand thrown around his
neck. And all night long heaven was a mold enveloping
you and your delirium. And in the morning God gave
you the idea of killing . . .

JUDITH. Killing myself!

GUARD. If you like. But then you lost sight of every-
thing except a little white circle on the sleeper's
chest. As if a tiny mirror, like the one you played
with as a child, were concentrating light from above
onto that spot in the center of the man you thought
you loved. And that spot Of light, you struck at
it . . . it was a target for you. Isn't that true,
Judith?

JUDITH O maYbe o

GUARD. Isn't that true?

JUDITH, low. Yes, it is true.

GUARD. And tears of joy flowed in heaven to see hatred
on your body. And we forged rivets which would pre-
vent you from withdrawing the dagger once you had
plunged it to its mark.

JUDITH. I only wanted to scratch him, prick the skin.

GUARD. And when you raised the dagger in your hand, that
circle of light filled your thoughts, multiplied them

by ten hundred. Didn't you feel the presence then,
Judith?

116

JUDITH. Oh, was that you?

GUARD. Me and an avalanche of other spirits. And after
the deed was done and you.were awaiting death, like a
bee who dies after stinging its enemy, we returned you
to the world of nature. And you heard the spider
spinning its web and the mole burrowing his tunnel in
the ground under the bed. Then you heard a human
voice. That was Susanna. And this, ungrateful child,
is what God has done for you. Now open the flaps and
go back to your peOple. Israel is waiting.

JUDITH. No, no! They'll make me into a martyr.
GUARD. Who said you.were a martyr?

JUDITH. Since the day I was born everyone knows God in-
tended me for love.

GUARD. Don't be stubborn, Judith. There is love in your
story, but that chapter belongs to Susanna.

JUDITH. Do you think I'd suffer like this if I weren't
made of tenderness? And why must this miracle be an
afterthought? Why must you take a night of blasphemy
and make it look as if it were something holy?

GUARD. That is for God to worry about. From where He sits,
a thousand years away, God reserves the right to pro-
Ject saintliness on sacrilege and purity on self-
indulgence. It's all a question of knowing how to
light the stage.

JUDITH. Those lights are so bright they're scorching me.

GUARD. And this is only the beginning. Wait until the
sun rises. There it comes now. Rise, sun! And you,
Judith, to the city!

JUDITH. The city! In one night I've lost everything I
ever lived for. No friends, no . . .

GUARD. You can live without your friends.

JUDITH. And my memories?

GUARD. What memories?

JUDITH. If I am to grow old, what is my desiccated old

body to do with the memories of the happy, warm,
breathing.thing it once was? What will I keep of

117

Holofernes? Shall I have a son? You could at least
tell me that?

GUARD. I've said all I can say to Judith before taking
up my own life of disgrace. For in order to convince
you, I've betrayed God's most hidden secret, and in
doing so I've lost my place in heaven.

JUDITH. You, too! You too betrayed God. But what made
you do it?

GUARD, with an angelic smile. Love?
JUDITH. Love for me?

GUARD. Love for love. I don't see why Judith shouldn't
tell her people that somewhere outside the gates of
heaven there is a fallen angel who still believes that
Judith is a name for tenderness. But you must do as
I say, immediately, or else I shall have to seize you
and press your throat until I've squeezed out the
truth.

JUDITH. The truth?

GUARD. The truth, Judith, is God's lie to the world! And
you must shout it, for all to hear!

(Then he flops back onto the bench and sinks back into
a drunken sleep.)

JOACHIM. Judith beware. You are breaking the bond that
binds you to God. Beware!

JUDITH, blinded. Is that you, Joachim?

(Enter JOHN. A flash of light as he opens the tent
flap attracts JUDITH'S attention. She turns.)

JUDITH. Oh, it's you -- John!

(She walks to him, as if trying to imagine that he is
someone else. JOHN recoils.)

Did you . . .? Holofernes . . . Did you?

(JUDITH makes a gesture of appeal to JOHN. After
protecting the object in his arms with the cape, he
draws his sword to prevent her approach.

The rest of the scene is a pantomime played in
counterpoint against the dialogue of the churchmen.

118

 

Guard: "The truth, Judith, is God's lie to
the world! And you.must shout it, for
all to hear!"

119

When JUDITH replies to JOACHIM'S questions she does
so in a tired, faraway voice -- as if she were
replying to JOHN.)

JOACHIM. If anybody ever finds God's hiding place in the
universe, my girl, it won't be you!

JUDITH, looking at JOHN. Don't worry, I'm going with
' you.

JOACHIM. To the city?

FIRST CANTOR. Where you can stir up this scandal all over
again? Oh no, we don't leave this tent until every—
thing is settled between us. What are your conditions?

JUDITH, still staring at JOHN. I told you, I'm coming
with you. With no conditions at all.

JOACHIM. We have conditions. We have to protect our-
selves against a relapse.

JUDITH, still to JOHN. Whatever they are, I agree to them
in advance.

JOACHIM. You will live in the synagogue. You will see
neither friends nor family.

JUDITH, still to JOHN. That won't be difficult. God has
already crowded them out of my life.

JOACHIM. If any last words of love or pleasure remain in
your mouth, say them now. Spit them out here before
entering an everlasting silence. Come on, child, spit!

JUDITH, backing away from JOHN. My mouth is dry.

JOACHIM. If you wish we can call a servant who will bathe
you before we go.

JUDITH, turning away from JOHN. My body is dry, too.

JOACHIM. Starting tomorrow morning Judith shall sit in
judgment over disorderly families, immoral professors,
and prostitutes. She will prescribe their punish-
ments.

JOHN. She will know how to punish them.

JOACHIM. And you will select those who are to fast and
pray and wear the sackcloth in her company.

120

JOHN. She accepts.

JUDITH. I accept.

FIRST CANTOR. Then glory to Judith. Let me put this
cloak over her shoulders. What is more seeming for
the bride of God?

GUARD, drunk. She told me she was a widow. Holofernes's
widow!

JUDITH. What did he say?
FIRST CANTOR. Nothing.

GUARD. She loved him. She killed him because she loved
him.

JOACHIM. Well, Judith, what are you waiting for?
JUDITH. John, someone should cut out this man's tongue.

GUARD. Her name was Judith. She had a body made for love.
All night long, without a break.

JUDITH. And when the soldiers cut out his tongue, make
sure that someone puts wax in their ears.

(The GUARD rises again from the bench.)
JUDITH. What's he doing now?
FIRST CANTOR. It's a kiss. But what does it mean?

GUARD. What does it mean? It means that I am Judith,
the whore!

JUDITH. John, you had better have him killed.
JOACHIM. He shall be killed.

JUDITH, after a last look at the guard. Then let the
world make way for Judith-the-Saint!

(JOACHIM and CANTORS lead exit; JUDITH follows.)

CURTAIN

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area h
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area 5
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area 1 -
prologue 2
area 1
area 5
area 6
area 7
area 7 -

prologue 1

area 1
area 7
area 2
platform
area 2
area 1
platform
area 2
area 3
platform
area 3 -
prologue 3

platform
area b
area 6
guard spec.
area 3
platform
area 7
area 5
platform
area 3
area 6
area 2

COLOR

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128

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INSTRUMENT NUMBERS
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199 269 31

1: 4’ 23

39 79 29

8, 24, 32

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129

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C (platform)
B1 (prologue)

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CHAPTER III

This Chapter will contain comments regarding
the physical production of the play Judith. The setting,
lighting, costumes, make-up, and music are integral
elements of any production and when these elements are
well handled they can greatly enhance a production. The
opposite is also true, when these elements are not well
handled they have a tendency to hinder instead of to

contribute to the over all effectiveness of the play.

Setting
Because Judith is a "listening" play, it was felt

that the setting should be as simple and unobtrusive as
possible. Also a complicated scene change is awkward in
the Michigan State University arena theatre. Giraudoux's
concentration on character and idea make a complicated
set unnecessary: only suggestions of locale were neces-
sary. For these reasons, Joseph's house in.Act I was
staged with two set pieces that suggested two corner wall
sections of a houSe. These gradated walls were placed
diagonally to one another at the limits of the playing
area. One section had a window frame designed into it and
the other section had an Opening to suggest a door that
led to some other part of the house. A low platform pro-

131

132

Jected out from the doored wall section toward the
Opposite wall section. This eight by eight foot platform
was one foot high with two surrounding steps leading up
to it. These steps were twelve inches wide. The plat-
form covered approximately one-fifth of the acting area.
A railing was placed on the platform to suggest house
decor. The reason for the platform was to give strength
and variety to blocking throughout the play.

Act II and Act III took place in an.Assyrian tent.
The railing and the wall sections were removed and the
platform remained to suggest a throne area. Two fire-
pots, two throne-like chairs and fur pieces were added
to suggest a barbaric tent and to give color.

The platform, steps, railing, floor, and walls
were not painted realistically, but were painted a tex-
tured brown so they would be unobtrusive. There was no
consistent critical comment regarding the set; however
there may have been more elaborate possibilities that
could have been considered. It did serve its purpose
to suggest locale and to give the actors the needed image

to perform their roles.

Lightigg
To help establish the mood of the play a prologue

was added. The wailing of the people of Israel called
for in the original script seemed too much of a distrac-

tion in the close quarters of the arena. To establish

133

a strong and lasting impression of the desperate state
of the peOple, three peOple in succession were brought
on stage, each in his own harsh white light.

Act I was presented in unobtrusive mellow general
light. These straw colored lights were dimmed out at the
end of the Act and a stark white light illuminated the
murder of the prophet.

Act II was lit in the same mellow light used in
Act I. The only change in lighting occurred at the end
of the Act when the lights were dimmed down and blue
lights were brought up to establish an unnatural, dream-
like quality around Judith.

Act III opened with a streak of red light to
suggest passion as well as to suggest newness and change.
The general illumination was the same as it was in Acts
I and II. This lighting lit the remainder of the Act
until the appearance of the Guard. Then the general
illumination was dimmed down and the same unreal blue
light of Act II was raised on the Guard. When the Guard
faded from Judith's mind, the blue light was dimmed down
and the general lighting was raised to light the remainder
of the play.

The lighting in the arena is not the most desirable
because the lights cannot be raised high enough to achieve
the most effective use of the lighting instruments.

However, the general lighting for Judith was adequate

13h

even with certain shadows on the actors. The specific
lighting added to the general mood of the play and did

much to indicate change, emotion, and time.

Costumes

The costumes were patterned after Second Century
B. C. Jewish and Assyrian clothing. There was a certain
amount of poetic license taken in the designing of the
costumes, especially with the Jewish costumes. Most of
the Jewish clothing of the Second Century seemed drab.
What was needed for this play were costumes that were
pleasant to the eye, interesting in appearance and
portrayed character and variety.

Most of the costumes were consistent to the direc-
tor's and costumer's conception, costumes were to com-
pliment and accent character relationship: however, this
did not entirely occur.

The color blue was chosen for Judith's costume
because of its non-downsto-earth quality. The costume
was first conceived as being flowing in nature to
suggest exuberance, restlessness and individuality. Due
to a break down in communication between the costumer and
the director, the actual costume was close-fitting and
immoble. The costume gave Judith a rather sedate and
regal appearance and hindered her movement.

Susanna's costume contrasted with Judith's cos-

tume nicely. It was brash and designed to indicate her

135

profession and her relationship to Judith. The only ad-
verse criticism would be that the costume paralleled a
1920 flapper dress with its string fringe and the gold
trim may have been too brash.

A costume of off-white with gold trim was designed
for Holofernes. There was no symbolic intent in the
choice, but with his dark skin and the costume's flowing
quality, it set him off impressively as a superhuman.

Egon's costume was to be a cheap imitation of
Holofernes' costume. However, this was not achieved.
Instead he was costumed in a yellowish Assyrian officer's
uniform that by itself was fine, but it did not indicate
the character relationship intended.

Joseph's costume was too flat. Although the
costume was to suggest a tiered, full-length gown, the
material was too flimsy to suggest wealth, weight, and
depth. The costume remained two-dimensional.

The color of Joachim's costume was the authentic
purple color worn by a rabbi of the Second Century B. C.
However, the costume appeared incomplete due to the lack
of cleric decor. A shortage of time in preparation seems
to have been the difficulty in perfecting the cleric
dress.

Finally, the green color of Daria's costume was
distorted by the blue light she appeared in. The blue

light used did not enhance her costume.

136

Make-up

Basically there were no problems in make-up
because most actors were playing their approximate ages.
The only make-up problems were with Daria and the Cantors.
Daria's age make-up was too heavy and the Cantors did

not appear mature enough.

algae

With the lack of suitable and apprOpriate Assyrian
and Jewish music, Turkish music was used to set the mood
of each act. The Act I music was chosen to suggest the
waiting quality of the Jewish peOple and then a change in
music to establish the building frenzy of the same peOple.
The Opening of Act II was preceded by music that was to
suggest the sensual attitude and excitement of the
Assyrian camp. The Act III opening music attempted to

establish a sad, expectant, and melancholy atmosphere.

CHAPTER IV

The production Of Judith proved to be an exciting
and interesting endeavor. There were successes within
the play, but there were also observable weaknesses re-
garding the actors, the director, and the playwright.

Such critics and authors as Laurent LeSage and
Donald Inskip recognize weaknesses in Judith. There
simply is not enough time devoted to the development of
character. Judith and Joachim present no great inter-
pretation problem after one has thoroughly studied the
script, but an audience does not always have this
advantage. Another problem is presented in the quick
changes in mood. Giraudoux's witty Jibes in serious
situations many times ruin whatever dramatic tension
that is building. Perhaps the greatest problem with
this technique is that it is too abrupt for an audience
to follow. Perhaps this is his technique to heighten
situations by extreme contrast. An audience familiar
with Giraudoux should be able to anticipate his method
of presenting characters and philosophies. This is as
much a part of Giraudoux's philosophy as it is a part of
his drama: we should be able to stand aSide from anything
and look at it objectively and even perhaps find some

humor.

137

138

This technique places a heavy burden on the
actors and it takes a competent actor to meet this
challenge. The actor must be able to delineate the
humorous from the serious ideas for the audience since
the language of the script does not. The characters
generally must not appear to be aware of the humor in
their situations, but must convey this contrast in mood
to the audience.

The burden of Act I is placed upon Joachim and
especially Judith._ Judith must be childlike, spoiled
and fickle in the beginning of Act I. We must see that
she is retaliating against Joachim because she had not
gotten what she wanted. She must appear shallow and self-
ish with only her best interests as her concern. It
establishes an ambiguity in her character. She does not
know what she is so she is very changeable. Joachim's
appeal to her pride, as savior of her country and God,
excites her imagination and her fancy. This childlike
quality was never obtained in Act I by the actress per-
forming Judith's role.

The actress entered as a mature woman. The
sensualness was obvious, but it was of the wrong quality.
She appeared experienced rather than virginal and high
strung. She commanded situations when she should have
appeared to be contending with superior forces. Part

of this inadequacy, however, was due to the inadequacy of

139

the actor performing the role of Joachim.

One scene in the first act that establishes
Judith's childishness is a scene with Joachim. It is
when he manipulates her into agreeing to go to Holo-
fernes. The actor did not convey the nuances of
Joachim's character. There was not enough shrewdness.
He appeared to be very ordinary but holy. Joachim's
character is a complex one, as already has been explained
in the analysis Of the play.

What further weakened a scantily written,
inadequately acted first act was unmotivated blocking.
Actors were sometimes moved so they could be seen from
different portions of the audience. The acting inade-
quacy, too, is partially a directorial inadequacy. Per-
haps another approach, further discussion and further
rehearsal could have deveIOped the acting into something
more satisfactory.

Judith's lack of childishness in.Act I detracted
from her fine acting in Act III. Judith performed her
scene with the Guard admirably, but her regression here
seemed a little unwarranted without the establishment of
it in.Act I. In the production her character appeared
to take on a new facet, and this added a needless compli-
cation to a scene that is difficult enough to grasp in
itself. If it had not been for the competency of the

actors in this scene, it might have been quite unaccep-

1&0

table.

The actor performing John's role was consistent
and performed adequately. Although the actor gave some
very nice line deliveries, it was sometimes apparent
that he lacked eXperience and polish. His acting, however,
did not really detract from the production. Joseph's
role was in.many ways like John's, straightforward and
ordinary. The actor who performed Joseph was adequate
and fit the part physically. He performed his function
in the play quite adequately. The boy who performed
Little Jacob was competent enough. He delivered his
lines well and seemed realistic. The servant was
adequate.

Otta and Uri did an acceptable Job. It was notable
that they were inexperienced actors, but they were quite
believable. Inexperience hindered Daria's role which
demands instant intensity. The same is true for the
actors performing as cantors. They simply did not have
the experience or training to develop their characters
completely and fully.

Susanna did an excellent Job of acting. She was
a fine contrast to Judith. She was sympathetic and noble
to the correct degree. Sarah's role was a standard one
Iperformed competently. Egon, the effeminate contrast to
Holofernes was satisfactory, many of his speeches re-

vealed genuine talent. However, the actor was somewhat

141

hampered by his youth and strong physical appearance in
a role which demanded more of a lithe intellectual.

The Prophet's movement and physical being were
very satisfactory. His vocal quality depicted well the
desperation of the people of Israel.

Judith's performance in Acts II and III, the
Guard and Holofernes did excellent polished acting, per-
forming to the director's eXpectations. From the
beginning Of Act II to the end of Act III, Judith built
her character to full capacity. The scenes with Egon,
Holofernes and the Guard were the most excellent. She
achieved some remarkable intensity in many instances.

Part Of this is due to her superb supporting
actors. Holofernes captured in every way Giraudoux's
natural humanistic man. The actor's polish, experience
and thorough understanding of Giraudoux made his per-
formance outstanding. .

The Guard's performance was captivating, one
could almost detect Giraudoux's demonic smile. The
spirit of Giraudoux was clear and entertaining. The com-
petency of the Guard and Holofernes contributed greatly
to the overall satisfactory production Of Judith. It is
in these two roles that Giraudoux composed a substantial
portion of his philosophy. The role of Joachim served as
a contrast to his philosophy, but it is felt that this

contrast to his philosophy never came through. This role

1&2

was not performed to the best advantage of the play.

Because of an incomplete portrayal the audience
may have been somewhat mystified by the characterization
of Judith. This may have detracted from the meaning Of
the play, but Judith was competent and intense enough at
other times to make her portrayal significant and enter-
taining. Although her portrayal was not done exactly to
the director's expectation, the characterization which was
presented was done well enough. Although Judith lacked
satisfactory interpretation in parts, there were many
scenes in the production which contained exciting and
artistic acting.

The scene with the Guard may have been somewhat
ambiguous, but overall it was felt that Giraudoux's point
came across. Part of his attraction is his ambiguity
and room for diverse interpretations. Consequently, it
was felt that traces of ambiguity should be apparent in
the production. After all, the beauty of Giraudoux is that

he is never cornered and/or exact.

.In=roh ,

CHAPTER V

It’lttlly Gem Roles

THE PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY
O
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

presents
IIJUDITHII
8v Jean Giraudoux
Daccled by Vance Paul

Technical Direction by Allen While

C(‘stumt-‘S by J. Michael Bloom

CAST (in order of appearance)
Charles Cassel
Pars? Servant ............. Louis Bauer
Second Servant .............. Henry Sleifes

 

The Prophet ............... Jere Kimmell
John ................... George Kovach
Joachim ................ Terry Williams
.lt-fl'l'l .............. Earlene Bates
Lillm Jacob .......... Joseph Duckwall
‘3 wanna ,. . . ......,Cnitlon Cunninq‘nam
F~rah .. .. . . , Marianne Llibkin
(lite . .................. David Stevens;
Uri .................... . d Oldftnl‘
E'TOH ......... .En‘mel Faulkner:
. Hotel-ornes ............... Eberle Thomas:
Dana ................ Harriett N»‘-".'.‘elll
Glad . R. Niacin. Miller;
First (antler ............ Henry Steffesa

fraudoux- does it. too, in “Ju-

fry of the Hebrew heroine who

lSEcnIm‘ (Alllor d Steele,i

..............

By DICK MURAY
State Journal Arts Writer
Cecil B. DeMille wasn’t the
only showman to infuse a Bib-
lical theme with a heavy dose
Of sensuality.
French playwright Jean Gi-

dith.” which debuted Tuesday
night. in Michigan State’s Arena
Theater.

This drama. based on the sto-

sacrifices her virginity to save
her people, is a Thespian’s tour
de force. Nearly every role, big
for small, is an acting gem —

 

and Director Vance Paul’s castl

has given the play a splendid
performance.

:Earlene Bates. remembered

as Maggie in “Cat on a Hot Tin.

Roof.” portrays a charmer of a
different. age, in a different con-é
text. To the character of Judith
she gives warmth and radiance;
-a woman who slays her peo-
ple’s arch enemy through love,
not hate.

Eberle Thomas is excellent as
Holofernes—the conqueror who
is not the monster Judith imag-

 

ln ‘Judith’ Debut

ined. but a magnetic personali-
ty with depths of understanding-
and sympathy. Thomas’ diction-
and gestures, his stage pres-
ence, all bespeak the polished
actor.

The authority and dignity
which marked the high priest‘s
historic role in Jewish history
are well exemplified by Terry
Williams’ portrayal of Joachim.

A gray heard has become al-
most stock makeup this season
for Jere Kimmell. He is again ,
effective as another old man—
the Prophet.

Emmet Faulkner. as the ef-
feminate Econ, who mocks Jud-
ith by impersonating Holofernes.
and R. Mack Miller. as the
guard who doubles as an angel,
make their scenes memorable.

Chilton Cunningham wins an-
dience sympathy as Susanna. the
prostitute who strives to protect
Judith. And Marianne Lubkin
makes Sarah, the procuress,
convincingly venomous.

Eleven-year-old Joseph Duck-
wall shows dramatic promise as
the youngster who refuses to
break his fast. .

Several exceptional players in.
this cast are making their fare-
well appearances at MSU. They
will be missed next year — both.
by directors and audiences.

11+}

{SUPPORTING CAST FAILS

lltll

 

Leads Prevent Mediocrity, ,

iBy BRYAN F. CARPENTER

State News Reviewer-

Judith is a girl. judith is a
saint. judith is a murderess.
Judth is a woman. Existentialist
jean Giraudoux’s “Judith" open-
.ed 'l‘uesday night in the Arena
:rl'hcater as all these things and
more in a stark philosophical
tragedy.

The Performing Arts Com-
pan}: arena production was well
adapted to the “round" stage by
iDirector Vance Paul. Lighting
and sound work. as usual with
the PAC, was polished and ef—
'fective, but the costuming, while
beautifully done, appeared overly
'colorful for the play's mood.

Giraudoux’s message, hOw—
cver, depends not on his setting
but on the expression of his char—
acters. Each character musr
“live” his role to bring the
full meaning to Judith’s tragedy.
The supporting cast failed to do
this. Many characters movedand
spoke in monotone and static ex-
pression.

Earlene Bates as Judith,
Eberle Thomas as the conquer—
er, Holefernes, and Chilton Cun-
ningham as Susanna kept the show
above mediocrity with the only

 

'JUDITH’

consistent, believable. involved
characterizations of the evening.

Miss Bates became judith as
she hated. feared and loved with
every word and thought. Petulant,

{.
t
l
t

 

...- --~..__——.a

 

silent, proud, furious, cowering ,
and courageous, she held the
audience awaiting the change of
her mind, the swish of her hair,
the shift of her fate. i
'l‘he interplay between Judith

liolefcr: picked up the
pieces of a hear—boring first,
and. began to build or re—

1‘35

(lCI
build the c o 11 fl i c t. 'l‘liOl'ngls’

smooth accomplished delivery
and characterization once again
attest to his pOpularity and ver—
satility. MissCunningham’sfeel—
ing, for the noble prostitute’s
character added emotional depth
to Judith’s tragedy.

A message or moral is nor
spelled out for the viewer. Gir-
audoux has superin'ipmed saint-1
liness on sacrilege, purity 07.:
self-indulgence and allowed Ju—
dith’s fate to judge her. With a
starkly simple framework and
o u t s t a ndi n g characterization,
“Judith” emerges from medioc—
rity to a moving and profound
climax.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Bentley, Eric (ed.). The Modern Theatre. Vol. 3. New
York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1955.

 

Chiari, Joseph. The Contemporary French Theatre: The
Flight from Naturalism. New York: The MacMiIlan

Co., 1959.

Dietrich, John E. Play Direction. New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall, 1953.

 

 

Fowlie, Wallace. Dionysus in Paris: a Guide 32 Contem-

porary French Theatre. New York: Meridian Books,
Inc., 196“.

Gassner, John (ed.). Producing the Play. New York:
Dryden, 1941.

Gorchakov, Nikolai M. Stanislavsky Directs. New York:
Funk and Wagnalls Company, 195“.

Grasset, Bernard (ed.). Jean.Giraudoux's Theatre. Vol.
I. Paris, 1959'

 

Grossvogel, David. 20th Century French Drama. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1961.

Guicharnaud, Jacques. Modern French Theatre: from
Giraudoux £3 Beckett. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1961.

Inskip, Donald. Jean Giraudoux: The Making gg‘g Drama-
tist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1958.

 

 

LeSage, Laurent. Jean.Giraudoux: His Life and Works.
Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1959.

 

 

LeSage, Laurence. Metaphor $3 the Nondramatic Works 23
Jean Giraudoux. Eugene: The Oregon University
Press, 1952.

 

Palmer, John. Studies ig.the Contemporary Theatre. Bos-

 

1#5

146

ton: Little Brown, and Company, 1927.

Smith, Hugh Allison. Main Currents‘gg Modern French
Drama. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1925.

Wellwarth, George E. Jean Giraudoux: Three Plays. Vol.
I. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.
Magazines

Hewes, Henry. "Giraudoux's Womanly Woman," Saturday
Review (April 10, 1965), p. 58.

Weales, Gerald. ”Virtue Rewarded," The Reporter, XXXII,
NO. 9 (May 6’ 1965), pp. 38"E00