The purpose of this production is to bring to life, through actors, the story Jean Cocteau imagined in the stained-glass windows he designed for Saint-Maximin Church in Metz. The title, The Man with Raised Arms, refers to the central window in the apse, the first window installed in 1962 and the only one Cocteau was able to see in situ during a visit to Metz. The other windows were installed after the artist’s death in 1963. The play consists of a prologue followed by three acts.

Prologue

The opening places Jean Cocteau himself before the central window in Saint-Maximin in 1962. In a continuous monologue, he recalls the stages of his life that led him to this final creation. He stresses the originality of the Metz ensemble and its difference from the churches and chapels he had decorated earlier in his final years.

At Saint-Maximin, instead of themes borrowed from Christianity, he drew almost exclusively on Greek mythology and the arts of the first peoples. Yet his Metz work is profoundly influenced by belief in another life after death. This takes the form of a paradoxical process that might be called “death/rebirth”, a theme developed throughout the stained glass.

Most surprisingly — and this may be a genuine revelation — Cocteau speaks of his friendship with Marcel Duchamp. It then becomes easier to see how this pioneer of contemporary art may have encouraged Cocteau to inscribe his last major work in glass, following the example of Duchamp’s Large Glass. This relationship emerged from my research and conversations with Arturo Schwarz, Duchamp’s friend and dealer.

Act I: The Shaman

This is the figure seen in the central window of the apse.

Scene 1, the shamanic ceremony: the shaman seeks to return to the ancient condition in which human beings lived in harmony with the gods — the paradisal state. He employs initiatory rites: dance, invocation and dialogue with birds.

Scene 2, ecstasy: through these rites, he enters a trance, communicates with the beyond and sees the creation of the world unfold before his eyes. From the egg at the origin of the great Whole emerges the androgyne, the first human being.

Scene 3, the androgyne: a dialogue between the androgyne and the shaman reveals the way back to the original state.

Scene 4, the ascent: accompanied by a woman, the shaman climbs a ladder towards heaven. He recovers the androgynous state and becomes immortal. At the top of the ladder, raising his arms to the sky, he exclaims: “I have reached Heaven… I have become immortal.”

Act II: Hyacinthus

In three scenes, Act II tells the story of Hyacinthus, whose figure appears in the north-transept window. First Hyacinthus walks; then Apollo and Hyacinthus throw the discus; finally comes Hyacinthus’s death and metamorphosis. The beautiful youth, beloved by Apollo, is mortally wounded during the game. Instead of truly dying, however, he is transformed into a flower, the hyacinth. His story is one among several that illustrate Cocteau’s death/rebirth paradox.

Act III: Orpheus

Cocteau always identified with Orpheus, the poet of mythology. The face in the central light of the east-facing triple window bears a striking resemblance to Cocteau. Three scenes explore this astonishing identification.

Scene 1: Cocteau identifies with Orpheus in a long monologue explaining his attraction to the mythic poet.

Scene 2: Orpheus’s head appears alone on stage, as though resting on a table, while the body remains hidden. Orpheus speaks with himself, simultaneously Orpheus and Cocteau. In mythology the Bacchantes tore him apart; only his head remained, yet it mysteriously continued to sing.

Scene 3: in the final windows of the Gournay Chapel, helmeted Minerva appears carrying a spear. Orpheus and Cocteau recount how Minerva killed the poet with a thrust of her spear, as in Cocteau’s film Testament of Orpheus. At the end, Cocteau is reborn with irradiated eyes. He has killed his own death.