View source for The State of Siege

{{Short description|1948 play by Albert Camus}}
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{{No plot|date=December 2024}}
{{one source|date=August 2011}}
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{{Infobox play
| name          = The State of Siege
| orig_title    = {{lang|fr|L'État de siège}}
| image         = TheStateOfSiege.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = First edition, published by [[Gallimard]]
| writer        = [[Albert Camus]]
| director      = 
| music         = 
| lyrics        = 
| choreography  = 
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| characters    = 
| mute          = 
| setting       = 
| premiere      = {{Start date|1948|10}}
| place         = 
| orig_lang     = French
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| web           = 
}}
'''''The State of Siege''''' ({{langx|fr|L'État de siège}}) is the fourth [[Play (theatre)|play]] by [[Albert Camus]].

[[File:Albert Camus, Obsedno stanje, SNG v Mariboru.jpg|thumb|left|The play by the [[Maribor Slovene National Theatre]] in 1955]]
Written in 1948, ''The State of Siege''&mdash;the original sense is closer to [[state of emergency]]&mdash;is a play in three acts presenting the arrival of [[bubonic plague|plague]], personified by a young opportunist, in sleepy [[Cádiz]] and the subsequent creation of a [[totalitarian]] regime through the manipulation of fear. In a piece written in 1948, in reply to criticisms from [[Gabriel Marcel]], Camus defended his decision to set the play in Spain, and not in Eastern Europe, citing the ongoing oppression in Spain, France's collusion in it, and the Catholic Church's abandonment of Spanish Christians.<ref>"Why Spain" in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. Trans. Justin O'Brien. New York, Vintage; 1960.</ref>

The piece was first performed in October 1948, and was initially received poorly by critics and public, who had eagerly awaited the work, but expected a dramatisation of Camus's novel ''[[The Plague (novel)|The Plague]]''. While the two share a common background, the treatments are entirely different in tone. Although Camus himself was pleased with the work, critics remained unimpressed.

''The State of Siege'' has remained almost constantly in print in French, and since 1958 in an English translation by [[Stuart Gilbert]]&mdash;in ''Caligula and Three Other Plays''&mdash;with a foreword by Camus.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/camus-albert-vol-32 Article on Camus dealing with his plays]

{{Camus|state=expanded}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:State of Siege, The}}
[[Category:1948 plays]]
[[Category:Plays by Albert Camus]]
[[Category:1951 books]]
[[Category:Books by Albert Camus]]
[[Category:Books about revolutions]]
[[Category:Books about totalitarianism]]
[[Category:Éditions Gallimard books]]

{{1940s-play-stub}}