L'Équarrissage pour tous

The play

Synopsis

Arromanches, 6 June 1944: while the Allied forces land in Europe, the protagonist of the play, a knacker indifferent to the surrounding destruction and the broader geopolitical events, is preoccupied with arranging the marriage of his daughter to a German soldier who has been residing in his home and with whom she has had a longstanding relationship. He invites another daughter, a paratrooper in the Red Army, and his son, a paratrooper in the American army, to the wedding. Military personnel from various factions—including Japanese, American, and German—also arrive and engage in many forms of excess. Ultimately, most characters end up at the knacker's yard.

Characters

The Father, knacker: André Reybaz

The Mother (first name: Marie)

The Neighbour

Marie, daughter of the knacker

Marie then Cyprienne, second daughter of the knacker, renamed during the play to avoid misunderstandings: Nicole Jonesco

Jacques, son of the knacker, enlisted as a paratrooper in the American army: Jacques Verrières.

Catherine, daughter of the knacker, paratrooper in the Red Army: Zanie Campan

André then Jacqueline, apprentice (later presented as his son)

Heinz (Schnittermach), German soldier, Marie's lover

The Postwoman

Four German soldiers

Kûnsterlich, German captain

Robert Taylor, American pastor

Four American soldiers

The Japanese paratrooper

Vincent, an old FFI member

Colonel Loriot, fourteen years old, FFI

Two nuns

The French captain

The French lieutenant

Bobby, French scout

Themes addressed

According to d'Déé, this early work by Boris Vian is his first to adopt a political and social dimension, addressing "a chaotic period of attempts to reorganize morality, institutions, alliances, after the turmoil of a deadly war." The play explores three central themes: war and antimilitarism, aspects of American civilization, and the family.

Antimilitarism is a recurring theme in the works of Boris Vian. In L'Équarrissage pour tous, it is treated in a satirical manner, while in Le Goûter des généraux it becomes a central focus. The play also includes a critique of certain aspects of "imperialism." Similar to the 1954 sketch Air Force from Cinémassacre, in which a soldier no longer remembers the reasons for fighting, the American soldiers in L'Équarrissage pour tous display only a vague understanding of the conflict. As in the other works, war is portrayed as being conducted in the name of democracy, which is repeatedly mocked. In one example, when the knacker asks whether "democracy yields good results," a soldier responds, "We can't know, it's secret."

Boris Vian expressed a strong opposition to war, which he viewed as absurd and unjust, and criticized military institutions and their symbolism. In L'Équarrissage pour tous, American and German soldiers are portrayed with derision, and nationalism is satirized. Gilbert Pestureau highlights that scenes such as strip poker games, the exchange of uniforms, and the singing of each other's national songs—Germans singing Happy Birthday and Americans performing a German tune—illustrate the idea that "military identity is interchangeable, and patriotism is just a garment." The presence of two of the knacker's children, one serving in the American army and the other in the Red Army, symbolically positions the future Cold War adversaries as morally equivalent, challenging the "simplistic vision of Liberation" and the perceived hypocrisy surrounding its commemoration.

Last-minute resistance fighters are also criticized, including two FFI members who were converted on the morning of the events. According to Gilbert Pestureau, this portrayal questions the overall Resistance, with Boris Vian aiming to show that the Resistance was carried out by a minority.

The peak of the satire occurs when the knacker's house, the only remaining structure amid the ruins, is demolished by a representative of the Ministry of Reconstruction for not being "aligned."

Style

The satire is presented in a humorous and unconventional manner. It has been described as an "anarchic vaudeville" and as “Ubu-knacker among the Branquignols” by René Barjavel; the first description was later adopted by Boris Vian for the text's publication and the play's poster. Gilbert Pestureau characterizes it as an iconoclastic farce. Unlike I Spit on Your Graves, which was written on commission, this play reflects Boris Vian’s distinctive personal style. Although criticized for its irreverent tone toward resistance fighters, Vian explained his approach: “The play is rather burlesque: it seemed to me better to make people laugh at the expense of war; it's a sneakier way to attack it, but more effective—and in any case, to hell with effectiveness...”

The humor in the play is derived from theatrical techniques rather than linguistic innovation or wordplay, as seen in Vian's novels. It relies on exaggeration and absurdity, including the infantilization of the military by the main character—for example, asking, “Heinz, aren't you supposed to be fighting with your comrades?” Colonel Loriot is described as fourteen years old, and along with another FFI member, Vincent, they are portrayed as resistance fighters converted that very morning. The characters’ unexpected reactions add to the play's absurdity. For instance, Marie, the knacker's wife, initially appears quiet and timid but later resists her husband's abuse, delivering “a tremendous punch in the stomach,” according to the stage directions, and attempting to knock him out with a dish before falling into the knacker's pit near the end of the act.

d'Déé also notes the abundance of allusions and references to various values in the play, stating that “they should all be cited, but the footnotes would then be longer than the play itself.” Among these is an ironic reference to the BBC's coded messages, depicted in the scene where the father and André write a telegram to inform other family members about the upcoming wedding:

André: I’m thinking. What if we sent them a message like this: Come back immediately for family council. Is Marie getting married?Postwoman: That’s not very original. Sounds like a telegram.Father: Radio Londres won’t accept that. We have to send them a clear message. No summary.[…]Father: Wait… There! The knacker awaits his two children for their sister’s wedding. I’m telling you, it has to be clear, otherwise people could misunderstand and take advantage of it to wreck everything, steal some Citroën Tractions, and cover them with white paint.

Writing process

In February 1947, Boris Vian initially conceived the idea as a novel, outlining a story set in the countryside during the war involving five sons—American, German, French, Russian, and Eskimo—parachuting into a farm and ultimately killing each other. He later chose to develop the concept as a three-act play, which he completed in two months.

Boris Vian presented the play to Jacques Lemarchand, a member of Gallimard’s reading committee, who praised the work but noted issues with the rhythm of the second act and the difficulty of staging the third act, which he described as “only be played by clowns with fifteen years of training.” Lemarchand considered the subject “excellent—scandalous and sure to make people howl,” but warned that finding theatre directors willing to stage the play might be challenging. After receiving positive feedback relayed by Lemarchand, Jean Paulhan suggested publishing a shortened extract of the first act in Cahiers de la Pléiade, limited to 25 pages. Vian agreed, and the text appeared in issue no. 4 of Cahiers in spring 1948. This prompted him to revise the play into a condensed, single-act format.

Boris Vian received limited interest from three directors—Jean-Pierre Grenier, Olivier Hussenot, and Roger Blin—whom he described as giving a “timid” response. In early 1949, Jean-Louis Barrault expressed interest but repeatedly delayed scheduling. Growing impatient, Vian eventually entrusted the premiere to André Reybaz, who had secured funding to stage the play with his Compagnie du Myrmidon. After initial difficulties in casting, the play was finally produced following some last-minute adjustments.

The final version of the play, with a runtime of 1 hour and 15 minutes, was considered too short. To complement it, Boris Vian wrote Le Dernier des métiers, an anti-clerical farce featuring homosexual innuendos. Its main character, Reverend Father Soreilles, believes himself to be a music hall actor while delivering sermons based on works by contemporary religious figures, including Jean Genet. Although the actors of the Compagnie du Myrmidon appreciated the skit's humor, the theater director, "shocked by the profaning tone of this tragedy" in Vian's words, chose to stage Sa Peau, a one-act play by Audiberti, after L'Équarrissage to extend the run.

The final version of the play, accompanied by Le Dernier des métiers and preceded by a critique titled Salut à Boris Vian by Jean Cocteau written after the premiere, was published in the second half of 1950 by Toutain publishers. In his foreword, Boris Vian states:

Reception

First performances and reviews

The dress rehearsal took place on 11 April 1950, with many critics in attendance. According to André Reybaz, the performance was met with frequent laughter, applause, and acclaim, causing the finale to start half an hour late. Similar reactions were observed during the premiere on April 14, including from critics who reportedly expressed their enjoyment.

The following days saw mostly negative newspaper reviews. Although André Reybaz's staging and the actors’ performances were widely praised, at least half of the fourteen published reviews were critical. Elsa Triolet, writing in Les Lettres françaises, criticized Boris Vian for his choice of the landing period, describing it as a “sublime” moment that he trivialized, while expressing “a strong antipathy for the ignominy of his spitting.” Guy Verdot, in Franc-Tireur, questioned the play's subject matter by asking, “And why not an operetta about concentration camps?” Some critics also directed personal attacks at Vian. Max Favalelli, in Ici Paris, mockingly referred to him as “Boris Viandox” and repeatedly called the work “Boris Viande.” Others accused Vian of deliberately seeking scandal.

Audience attendance declined in subsequent performances, and the play was replaced on the program by The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco on 11 May 1950.

Boris Vian's counter-critique

Boris Vian was hurt by the criticism, although he tried to maintain a good face and joke about it. André Reybaz wrote: “A cold rage animated Boris. I sensed it in the threatening calm that precedes storms, in a slightly fixed smile, in a complexion that was not pale, but absinthe-colored.” This episode, among others, contributed to Vian's total contempt for the profession of critic. In 1947, in response to both positive and negative reviews of I Shall Spit on Your Graves, he had already launched his famous retort: “Critics, you are calves!” He reproached critics for focusing more on peripheral aspects—such as the identity or personality of the author—than on the story in the book, or books in general. During the first publication of the play in late 1950 by Toutain, Vian included a “press dossier” as an appendix. Arguing from a principle of neutrality, he published each of the fourteen reviews in alphabetical order and responded to some of them in a dialogue form, mocking their authors.

To Jean-Baptiste Jeener, who wrote in Le Figaro: “This appetite for scandal bears only the pale face of wrongdoing and imposture...” and criticized the line: “I didn't see any English here” and the reply “We’re fighting here,” Boris Vian responded: “Let me inform you, Mr. Jeener, of a notable improvement introduced (following your suggestions) in the aforementioned text, here it is in substance:

The neighbor: Noticed? There's no English!

The father: We land here, we don't re-embark.

"Thus, thanks to you, people still laugh, but now they know why. I say thanks to you, because if you had understood right away that there was a clever allusion to Dunkirk, we would never have thought of introducing this pertinent improvement.”

When Guy Verdot of Franc-Tireur expressed outrage with the question, “Why not concentration camps?” he added puns: “We expected a boom. It's just hot air. Let's say: a breeze. If the author is counting on this to trigger the tornado of scandal, it's because he's never consulted an anemometer, at Arromanches or elsewhere.” Boris Vian ironically introduced the article with: “And let's end on a joyful note with Guy Verdot, of Franc-Tireur.” He then replied: “One will admire the incisiveness and depth of this critique. I like to think that Mr. Verdot devoted to me a fragment of his precious time which already gave us so many penetrating masterpieces. And then there is this idea of an operetta about concentration camps; but for that, I felt the talent failed me and I asked Mr. Verdot to write the verses for me. Finally, Mr. Verdot lamented the artificiality of our final dynamite crate; we offered to replace it with a real one, provided he came at least the first time. That was clever, wasn't it? He didn't come. Maybe next time...”

Performances by notable companies

The play was performed:

During the 1964–1965 season at the Théâtre des Saltimbanques in Montreal, directed by Pascal Desgranges;

In March 1968 at the Théâtre des Hauts-de-Seine in Puteaux, directed by Jean Deninx;

In February 1982 at the Théâtre de la Plaine in Paris, directed by Jean-Jacques Dulon.