It was first performed on 2 April 1948 at the Theatre Antoine in Paris, directed by Pierre Valde and starring François Périer, Marie Olivier and André Luguet.
(Illyria was an actual country of classical antiquity, whose territory included modern Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece, Serbia and surroundings.)
A young Communist, Hugo Barine, is told that Hoederer, a party leader, has proposed talks with non-Socialist groups, including the Fascist government and the liberal- and Nationalist-led resistance.
Hoederer intends to organize a joint resistance group opposing the Germans, and plan for a post-war coalition government.
Indeed, at first she sees the gun not as a murder weapon but as a metaphor for a phallus, hinting that Hugo may suffer from erectile dysfunction and is unable to please her.
These policies will cause problems for the right-wing government, allowing the left-wing groups, including the Communists, to seize power more easily.
Currently, the Communists do not have enough support to gain power, and the expected arrival of the Soviet forces may exacerbate the situation.
Hoederer points out that people do not like occupying foreign armies, even liberating ones, and the feeling will be passed on to the government introduced by the invaders.
He maintains that they, the Communists, must seize power, but Hoederer's expedient methods are not acceptable, especially since they involve collaborating with "class" enemies and deceiving their own forces.
Hugo realizes that, despite Olga's statements to the contrary, if he continues to live and remain a member of the party, his assassination of Hoederer will be meaningless.
Hugo Barine, a young 23-year-old bourgeois intellectual who joined the party's Communist faction under the name of Raskolnikov (from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment).
Karsky, the leader of the Pentagon, a group that includes Liberals and Nationalists, fighting the Regent of Illyria and his pro-Fascist government.
Les mains sales is primarily based on the theme of existentialism which Sartre espoused, but many have taken it as a straightforward political drama.
The play was not staged in a socialist state until November 1968 when it was shown in Prague after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by fellow Warsaw Pact forces.
Underlying the critics' response to Les mains sales is the extent to which it is a play too rooted in themes of politics and existentialism, and whether, as a consequence, it becomes inaccessible for the average spectator.
Non-French versions of the play have had other titles, including Dirty Hands, The Assassin, Red Gloves and Crime Passionnel.
In 1982, the play was performed at the Greenwich Theatre in London under the title of The Assassin, starring Edward Woodward and Michele Dotrice.
[1] It was performed again later in 2000 in Britain under the title of The Novice, starring Jamie Glover as Hugo and Kenneth Cranham as Hoederer.
[2] The director of this performance, Richard Eyre, intended to raise conflicting differences in contemporary British political life, such as the Northern Ireland peace process or the Old and New factions of Britain's Labour Party government.
[3] In 2017, the play was adapted by Leopold Benedict for the Pembroke Players, under the title of Dirty Hands: A Brexistential Crisis, to comment on the politics of the post-Brexit era.