The Apollo of Bellac
one-act play written by Jean Giraudoux
The Apollo of Bellac (French: L'Apollon de Bellac or L'Apollon de Marsac) is a comedic one-act play written in 1942 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux.
Plot summary
The play is set in the reception room of the International Bureau of Inventions, during autumn in Paris. It focuses on a timid, young woman by the name of Agnes. After she arrives, she is given the most powerful secret in life by a homeless man from the little town of Bellac. Like Giraudoux himself, the man comes from the Limousin region of France.
The secret he gives her is to tell all men that they are beautiful ("How beautiful you are!" or "Comme vous êtes beau!") and they will play right into your hands. She quickly catches on and the men of the Bureau fall for her left and right. In the Valency translation, it ends with her meeting the handsome (and single) Chairman of the Board, and everyone wondering what has happened to the great man (the homeless inventor) who quietly slipped away.
Cast and productions
L'Apollon de Bellac was translated into English by Maurice Valency, in Jean Giraudoux, Four Plays, vol. 1 (1958), and 1957 by Ronald Duncan.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Apollo of Bellac” is one-act play written by Jean Giraudoux. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Apollo, Bellac and one-act, not as a finished interpretation.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3202161. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1958 and 1957.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Apollo of Bellac” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.