Les Avariés
[2] Controversially, the play centred on the effect of syphilis on a marriage, at a time when sexually transmitted diseases were a taboo topic rarely openly discussed.
[3] An English translation by John Pollock under the title Damaged Goods was published in 1911[4] and staged in the United States and Britain, including a run on Broadway in 1913 starring Richard Bennett.
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.
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 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]: 32 The plight of George's wife and child is an example of what progressive physicians and sexual hygienists called "innocent infections" (or syphilis insontium).
[3] 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.
[3] Les Avariés was staged at Montreal's Théâtre des Nouveautés in 1905, with the theatre taking the unusual measure of admitting only men.
[5] The actor Richard Bennett played the lead role of George Dupont and also served as a producer and public face of the production.
[3] 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.
One of the earliest was a June 1914 production by William Fox's Academy of Music Stock Company in New York, which ran for six weeks of well-attended performances.
[11] Damaged Goods was briefly revived on Broadway at the 48th Street Theatre in May 1937 by Henry Herbert, who attempted to modernize the story.
The play's subject matter reportedly led to a reaction of stunned silence from the audience after the final curtain fell on the show's premiere.
[14] The play's frank discussion of syphilis was shocking in its time, as sexually transmitted disease was considered a taboo topic.
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.
