The Respectful Prostitute

Meg Mundy won a Theatre World Award for her performance in the play at the Cort Theatre in 1948.[1]

The Respectful Prostitute (French: La Putain respectueuse) is a French play by Jean-Paul Sartre, written in 1946, which observes a woman, a prostitute, caught up in a racially tense period of American history. The audience understands that there has been an incident on a train with said woman involved, but also a black man on whom the blame is laid by the prejudiced law enforcers. What comes to the viewer's realisation is that a white man instigated an attack, but it is in the interests of the law to preserve the perception of the white person at the expense of the black 'devil'.

The tale takes a brief look at the loss of freedom inside a cruel world, a subject that dominates Sartre's literary career. The play premiered in November 1946 at the Théâtre Antoine-Simone Berriau.

The play was adapted in the film La Putain respectueuse (1952).

References

  1. ↑ The Respectful Prostitute at the Internet Broadway Database

Sources

No Exit (Huis Clos)
The Flies (Les Mouches)
Dirty Hands (Les Mains sales)
The Respectful Prostitute (La Putain respectueuse)