Incident at Vichy

About the show

Incident at Vichy is a one-act play written in 1964 by American dramatist Arthur Miller. It depicts a group of men who have been detained in Vichy France in 1942; they are being held for their "racial" inspection by German military officers and Vichy French police. The play focuses on the subjects of human nature, guilt, fear, and complicity and examines how the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust with so little resistance. Miller said of Incident at Vichy, "What is dark if not unknown is the relationship between those who side with justice and their implication in the evil they oppose. [...] The good and the evil are not compartments but two elements of a transaction." The play premiered on Broadway on December 3, 1964, at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in New York City. The production closed on May 7, 1965, after 32 performances. The cast included Michael Strong as LeBeau, Stanley Beck as Bayard, Paul Mann as Marchand, and David J. Stewart as Monceau. A London production in 1966 at the Phoenix Theatre starred Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle and Nigel Davenport. Miller adapted the play for a 1973 television production directed by Stacy Keach and starring Andy Robinson, Burt Freed, Harris Yulin, Richard Jordan and René Auberjonois.