He learns that immediately prior to the war he pushed his best friend, Marcel, down a flight of stairs, breaking his back, shortly after seeing him kiss the maid Juliette, with whom Jacques had been intimate.
Inspired by the story of an amnesiac soldier, Anthelme Mangin, who was claimed by over a dozen families,[2] the play was first presented on 16 February 1937 and was Anouilh's first major hit with critics and audiences alike.
According to biographer Edward Owen Marsh, the playwright enjoyed "his first financial success in the theatre, when perhaps the poorest theatre-director in Paris, Georges Pitoëff, produced what is generally considered to be one of Anouilh's finest plays, Le Voyageur sans bagage.
"[3] The play first appeared in English as Identity Unknown in an adaptation by Alice Wagstaffe, presented at the Duke of York's Theatre, London on three consecutive Sundays in December 1937.
For this revival the Milhaud music was restored and Anouilh made some changes to the text, claiming that some of the original expressions were "franchement démodés" (frankly outmoded).
[17] A new stage adaptation by Anthony Weigh, transposed to 1950s America and titled Welcome Home, Captain Fox!, was produced at London's Donmar Warehouse in March 2016.