Les Avariés

The play is in three acts. It centers on George Dupont, twenty-six, who is engaged to be married.

In the first act, Dupont is informed by a doctor that he is infected with syphilis. The doctor urges Dupont to postpone his marriage until he has been cured of the infection. (At the time the play was written, this would have entailed three to four years of treatment with Mercury-based compounds.) Dupont rejects the doctor's advice, and moves forward with the wedding.

The second act takes place some time later, with Dupont having married his fiancée, Henriette, who has recently given birth to their first child. Their newborn was found to be sickly, and was sent to the country to recuperate under the care of George's mother, Madame Dupont. Mme. Dupont brings the baby back to George's home because the baby's health has further deteriorated. A doctor (the same that diagnosed Dupont in the first act) arrives and advises that the wet nurse be relieved of her duty lest she contract an illness from the baby. Mme. Dupont objects, and offers the wet nurse a considerable sum of money to stay on, which she accepts.

After inspecting the baby, the doctor announces it is afflicted with congenital syphilis. He threatens to inform the wet nurse of this if the Duponts insist on retaining her service, but the nurse learns of the diagnosis from a butler and refuses to honor her previous agreement to feed the baby. The act ends with the arrival of Dupont's wife, Henriette, who overhears what has transpired and falls to the floor screaming.

The third act takes place in a hospital. Monsieur Loche, a politician and the father of Henriette, arrives at the hospital to confront the doctor who had initially diagnosed Dupont. Loche wishes to effect a divorce, and asks the doctor to sign a statement attesting to Dupont's syphilis diagnosis. The doctor declines, citing doctor-patient confidentiality. Loche despairs that there ought to be a law mandating medical examination before marriage. The doctor disagrees, complaining that "there are too many [laws] already". Instead, the doctor suggests a need for more education and open discussion of sexually transmitted diseases, and for an end to the stigmatization of syphilis as a "shameful disease":

Syphilis must cease to be treated like a mysterious evil, the very name of which cannot be pronounced.... People ought to be taught that there is nothing immoral in the act that reproduces life by means of love. But for the benefit of out children we organize round about it a gigantic conspiracy of silence. A respectable man will take his son and daughter to one of these grand music halls, where they will hear things of the most loathsome description; but he won't let them hear a word spoken seriously on the subject of the great act of love. The mystery and humbug in which physical facts are enveloped ought to be swept away and young men be given some pride in the creative power with which each one of us is endowed.[5]

Brieux wrote Les Avariés in 1901.[6]

John Pollock translated the play to English in 1905 under the title Damaged Goods. His translation was not published until May 1911 alongside two other translations in the book Three Plays By Brieux. Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote a preface to the book which included praise for Les Avariés:

No play ever written was more needed than Les Avariés...Sex is a necessary and healthy instinct; and its nurture and education is one of the most important uses of all art; and, for the present at all events, the chief use of the theatre.[1]

The book sold well in the United States and England and went through multiple editions.[6]

An English novelization, also titled Damaged Goods, was published by Upton Sinclair in 1913 with the approval of Brieux. The novelization closely follows the play and incorporates most of its dialogue.[6]

Brieux was prevented from staging the play in Paris by censors, but was eventually granted permission to present a private reading at the Théâtre Antoine in 1902.[6] The play had a significant impact on Paris intellectuals.[2]

United States

Photograph from the first US production of Damaged Goods in New York City. The doctor (Wilton Lackaye) attempts to persuade George Dupont (Richard Bennett) to postpone his marriage until his syphilis has been cured.

The first US productions of Damaged Goods were produced by the Sociological Fund, a fund created by the editors of the journal Medical Review of Reviews and led by Edward L. Bernays, who managed to raise $11,000 for the play.[3] The actor Richard Bennett played George Dupont, who also served as a producer and public face of the production.[6]

The first performance of Damaged Goods, a special matinee for members of the Sociological Fund, occurred on March 14, 1913, at the Fulton Theatre on Broadway. The following month, the Sociological Fund arranged for a special performance of the play on April 6 at the National Theatre in Washington DC for US President Woodrow Wilson, members of Wilson's cabinet, and members of Congress.[3][6]

The play had its public premiere on May 14, 1913, at the Fulton Theatre. It played for 66 performances, exceeding its initially planned run of 14 performances due to unexpected demand. Following its Broadway run, Bennett took the play on tour across the country, where its success continued.[6]

Damaged Goods was briefly revived on Broadway at the 48th Street Theatre in May 1937 by Henry Herbert, who attempted to modernize the story. It was not well received by critics and played for only eight performances.[6]

The play's frank discussion of syphilis was shocking in its time, as sexually transmitted disease was considered a taboo topic. For example, the New York Times in its (positive) review of the 1913 Broadway production periphrastically referred to the play's subject matter as a "rare blood disease" and "a subject which hitherto has practically been confined to medical publications".[3] One of the few earlier plays to mention sexually transmitted disease was Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts (1881), which was similarly controversial,[9] though Damaged Goods was the first play staged in the United States to use the word "syphilis".[10] The American production of Damaged Goods mitigated the potentially controversial effect of its subject matter by its association with the respectable journal Medical Review of Reviews. In a feature story, the New York Times described the play as having "the approval of many of our leading men and women".[11]

A handbill advertising the 1914 silent film adaptation of Damaged Goods starring Richard Bennett

Damaged Goods was the subject of a number of film adaptations. The first, Damaged Goods (1914), was an American silent film in which Richard Bennett reprised the role of George Dupont which he played in the US stage production. It has been credited with sparking a fad of sensational "sexual hygiene" films (sometimes colloquially referred to as "clap operas"),[12] which were seen as precursors to the exploitation film genre.[9]

A Victim of Sin (advertised as A Victim of Sin OR Damaged Goods, produced in 1913, had a plot which closely mirrored Brieux's play and was widely regarded as an unauthorized adaptation.[13]

A British silent film adaptation was released in 1919.

Damaged Lives was a 1933 Canadian/American exploitation film based on the play.

Damaged Goods (1937) was an American picture released in 1937 based on Upton Sinclair's novelization of the play, but modernized and set in the United States.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Les Avariés.

• Damaged Goods at Project Gutenberg
• Three Plays by Brieux at Project Gutenberg