The Misunderstanding

Act 1: The reception hall of a small boarding house Martha and her Mother, together with a taciturn Old Man, run a guest-house in which they murder rich solitary travellers. Martha wants to get enough money to go and live by the sea. Mother is exhausted by killing. Jan returns to the house he left 20 years ago. He has heard his father was dead and has returned with money for his mother. He expected to be welcomed as the prodigal son, but his mother does not recognise him. His wife Maria says a normal person would simply introduce himself, but Jan intends to observe his family from the outside and find what they really need to make them happy. Maria reluctantly agrees to leave him there for one night. Jan registers under a false name. Martha is cold and refuses to answer personal questions. Mother fails to respond when Jan hints at his purpose in coming and asks if she had a son, but she begs Martha not to kill him. Act 2: The bedroom, evening Martha warms slightly towards Jan, but when he becomes interested in her she rejects the shared moment and determines to kill him. She brings him a drugged cup of tea. Mother tries to retrieve the tea but is too late. Jan tries to express his feelings to her, but Mother replies impersonally. When Jan falls asleep, Martha takes his money and they prepare to throw him in the river. Act 3: The reception hall, morning In the morning, Martha is happy but Mother just feels tired. The Old Man finds Jan's dropped passport and they realise without emotion what they have done. Mother decides to drown herself, disregarding Martha's protests. Martha is left alone with her anger. Maria arrives, looking for her husband. Martha first says he has left, but then admits they drugged and drowned him for his money, saying it was "a slight misunderstanding" that led her to kill her own brother. Maria is distraught. Martha coldly compares it to her own loss of her mother. Then realising she is alone she decides to kill herself. She tells Maria to pray God turns her to stone or kill herself too, then leaves the house. Maria prays for mercy and the Old Man appears. Maria asks for help but he bluntly refuses. ==Origin==

Camus wrote Le Malentendu in 1942 and 1943 in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in Nazi-occupied France. Originally the play was to have been entitled Budejovice after the city České Budějovice in Czechoslovakia where Camus stayed briefly during a European trip with his first wife in 1936. The play "is a highly subjective presentation by Camus of the human condition as he saw it in the desperate circumstances of 1942-43". It reflects several aspects of Camus's life: he had left Algeria, to which he was deeply attached, leaving his second wife and friends behind; he was depressed with tuberculosis; as well as living under threat of execution as a propaganda agent of the French Resistance. Camus once described as "the play that resembles me the most". The plot of Le Malentendu resembles the newspaper article that the protagonist of Camus' 1942 novel The Stranger finds under his mattress in his prison cell: it is the story of a man who became rich abroad and comes home to his village where his sister and mother have a hotel. He doesn't reveal his identity (in order to surprise them later), and books a room as a guest. Because he is wealthy, his mother and sister murder him while he is asleep. The plot is also an ironic reversal of the classical theme of the recognition of the brother, from the ancient Greek Electra plays and the New Testament story of the Prodigal Son. ==Style==

Le Malentendu “is austere in its plot and characterization and claustrophobic in mood”. “It is the most poetic of all the works Camus wrote for the stage, but one cannot claim that speech and situation always match perfectly”. The characters “unwittingly express ambiguities that escape their awareness”, and indirectly express philosophical ideas. Le Malentendu is “so heavily laden with ambiguities and multiple levels of meaning that it borders on caricature, a fact that may explain its relative failure as a tragedy”. ==Themes==

Camus's theme is “the sauveur manqué, a savior who fails because of his inability to speak a clear language to those he would save”. Jan does not heed his wife Maria when she advises him to introduce himself plainly. His sister Martha accepts nothing but impersonal communication. Mother is too weary to respond to Jan's hints. The play contrasts the love between Jan and his wife with the absence of love from his sister and mother. Mother's suicide when she realises her crime deprives Martha of the maternal love she also needs. Maria's wish for divine love is also denied. “One of the most important themes is the impossibility of attaining happiness”. The return of Jan from happiness in Africa to a murderous home, and the yearning of Martha to be in the sun, reflect an antithesis between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, which informs all of Camus’ work. ==Philosophy==

"The vision is bleak, with Camus' absurdist creed summed up by one of his characters: 'This world we live in doesn't make sense'" “Although seen by a number of critics as a bleak piece of work, Camus did not regard Le Malentendu as pessimistic. He said: ‘When the tragedy is done, it would be incorrect to think that this play argues for submission to fate. On the contrary, it is a play of revolt, perhaps even containing a moral of sincerity’” ==Performance history==

Le Malentendu was staged for the first time at the Théâtre de Mathurins in Paris on 24 August 1944, directed by Marcel Herrand, who also played the part of Jan and with Maria Casarès as Martha. ==References==