In 1962 Simone Signoret moved from screen to stage in a way that produced an unusually public spat between star and playwright. Signoret translated Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes into French for a Paris production at the Théâtre Sarah‑Bernhardt, in which she also took the central role of Regina; the show ran for six months. Although Signoret’s translation had been vetted and approved by scholars chosen by Hellman herself, Hellman nonetheless expressed displeasure with the production. The episode crystallizes the thorny tensions of adaptation and authorship in mid‑century theatre: a major actress asserting interpretive control, the playwright exercising post‑approval veto, and the fragile egos and rights that govern high‑profile transfers of text and performance—an artistic feud with public resonance, even as the Paris run indicated popular or critical success despite the creator’s objections.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1960s
Lillian Hellman’s Displeasure: A High‑Profile Theatrical Rift Over Signoret’s French Little Foxes (1962)
Simone Signoret / The Little Foxes (French production) / 1960s
In 1962 Simone Signoret moved from screen to stage in a way that produced an unusually public spat between star and playwright. Signoret translated Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes into French for a Paris production at the Théâtre Sarah‑Bernhardt, in which she also took the central role of Regina; the show ran for six months. Although Signoret’s translation had been vetted and approved by scholars chosen by Hellman herself, Hellman nonetheless expressed displeasure with the production. The episode crystallizes the thorny tensions of adaptation and authorship in mid‑century theatre: a major actress asserting interpretive control, the playwright exercising post‑approval veto, and the fragile egos and rights that govern high‑profile transfers of text and performance—an artistic feud with public resonance, even as the Paris run indicated popular or critical success despite the creator’s objections.
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