About the Play:

Incident at Vichy is a full-length drama by Arthur Miller. In Nazi-occupied Vichy, France, nine men are rounded up under suspicious circumstances. None are told why they are held in a room by local authorities in aid of the Nazis, or when they can leave. As each man is removed for interrogation, some are set free, some are never heard from again, and the stakes rise for those who remain. Incident at Vichy is a taut historical drama by American master Arthur Miller. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

Incident at Vichy centres around the capture and questioning of a group of men during the Second World War. In the detention room of a Vichy police station in 1942, eight men have been picked up for questioning. As they wait to be called, they wonder why they were chosen. At first, their hopeful guess is that only their identity papers will be checked. But it soon develops that all of them are either Jews or are suspected to be. Two of the prisoners and one German policeman are the focal point of the play. The German is a wounded combat officer forced into the police assignment and detests it. More important though, are the other two. One is a former French officer, who has thoughts of overpowering the guard and trying to escape. The second is an Austrian nobleman, who had left Vienna in disgust after the Nazi occupation. A gentle lover of the arts, he despises the Nazis mainly because they are crude, vulgar and tasteless. In the end, the dramatic confrontation is between these two. The Frenchman is suspicious of the Austrian because he is convinced that all non-Jews have within them a strain of anti-Semitism. The Austrian must protest that he is not merely a superficial and theoretical idealist. In the end, he proves this by sacrificing his own life so that the Frenchman may go free, an act that confounds the suspicions of the one he saved, and redeems, at least in part, the concern and honour of decent men everywhere. Incident at Vichy is a haunting examination of the cold, bureaucratic efficiency of evil – and the shared humanity that might overcome it.

The Last Yankee premiered in 1964 on Broadway at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in New York City. This large-cast play has enjoyed several revivals in professional theatres, has been mounted in college and community theatre productions and is an ideal choice for high school drama contests and festivals.

Cast: 21 male

What people say:

"Arthur Miller has written a moving play, a searching play, one of the most important plays of our time … Incident at Vichy returns the theater to greatness." — New York Times

"…continuously absorbing…." — New York Post

"A seething, searing and profoundly stirring drama." — Associated Press

About the Playwright:

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) is considered one of the great American playwrights. During the Depression, finances were scarce and he paid for his college tuition by working as a shipping clerk in a New York factory. He later wrote his first plays in college. With a career that spanned over 50 years, he wrote more than thirty plays that transformed American Theatre and proved to be both the conscience and redemption of the times. His probing dramas received many awards in his lifetime, including two Emmy awards and three Tony Awards for his plays, a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949, for Death of a Salesman.