#that a 20th century french playwright would choose for a subject this martyr might seem less obvious

[mariocki]

Play 16: Becket by Jean Anouilh (tr. Lucienne Hill)

First performed: St. James Theatre, New York, 1960

Quote: "You can't tell a lie. I know you. Not because you're afraid of lies - I think you must be the only man I know who isn't afraid of anything - not even heaven - but because it's distasteful to you. You consider it inelegant. What looks like morality in you is nothing more than aesthetics." (King)

Stage direction: [The wind of excommunication shivers through the Council.]

Notable cast: Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn starred in the 1960 US premiere as Becket and the King, with Olivier taking over as the King once Quinn left the production. The first UK production included Eric Porter, Christopher Plummer, Diana Rigg, Roy Dotrice, Patrick Wymark and Ian Holm among its cast; Plummer was a replacement for Peter O'Toole, who quit the production (and the RSC) to make Lawrence of Arabia (1962). O'Toole would play the King, opposite old friend Richard Burton as Becket, in Peter Glenville's 1964 film adaptation. Subsequent productions and adaptations have included actors such as Derek Jacobi, Dougray Scott, Toby Stephens and David Morrissey.

Notes: Anouilh drew on inaccurate sources when writing Becket, resulting in a play which diverges in places quite drastically from known history; these mistakes were discovered before publication, but the playwright decided he preferred the dramatic development to true historiography. It was the right choice, and whilst the play is often wrongly considered a historical piece, it's truthfully more of a tragedy, with all the trappings and devices that carries with it. As a study of the title figure, a man whose transformation from aesthete to servant of God is as surprising to himself as to his peers, Anouilh makes the interesting choice to keep Becket offstage for long sections of the play; his character and his person are better explored through the impact he has on those around him, in particular King Henry II, subtly identifying the cult of personality which would come to surround Thomas immediately after his death.

Read: for the first time (?), but the film is a favourite