COCTEAU - Renaud and Armide, and Jean MARAIS.

Jean Cocteau (1889.1963)

Autograph letter signed to Jean Loup Simian.

A page in-4° on paper addressed to him.

Paris. November 21, 1944.

Beautiful letter relating to his play Renaud et Armide , evoking Jean Marais.

“Dear Sir, I am very touched by your project. I myself tried to organize Renaud's tour. Nothing is more difficult than finding these four very heavy roles. When I had Marais, I no longer had Armide . If I find an Armide – which I doubt – there is Marais in the Leclerc army. The best would be to organize it on site with young people as we did in Biarritz. Little Armide was killed by a bomb the day before the show. My first project was to have young people play Renaud. Your faithful Jean Cocteau. »

Renaud et Armide is a tragedy in three acts, performed for the first time on April 13, 1943 at the Comédie Française.

Jean Loup Simian , art critic at the newspaper Sud-Ouest, was friends with Max Jacob, Cocteau, and Louis Emié.

Jean Marais helped Cocteau to produce Renaud et Armide but the play was the victim of a cabal, apparently led by the collaborationists, and stopped very quickly.

After the liberation of Paris, in August 1944, he joined the French army and joined General Leclerc's 2nd ^DB , which Cocteau mentions in this letter.