The play debuted on February 9, 1918, at the Théâtre du Vaudeville. Burns Mantle writes in The Best Plays of 1920-21 that Guitry had to withdraw the play due to World War I shells starting to drop within blocks of the theatre, but that the play had already been such a success that there was "lively bidding" for the American rights to a translated version that Harley Granville-Barker had made for Charles B. Cochran.[1]
In America, after an out-of-town warmup in Washington,[2][3] the play debuted at the Belasco Theatre on December 23, 1920. Mantle writes that it "immediately took its place, not only as one of the fine plays of this particular season, but as one of the most impressively and beautifully staged plays the American stage has ever known."[1] Belasco, however, decided not to take the play on the road due to the cost of doing so, also reporting that the entire production in New York was also going to be a loss. The New York production required actors and staff totaling 126 (plus two children) to be staged.[4]
In London, Granville-Barker's translation debuted at the Ambassadors Theatre on November 3, 1921, and played through November 26 (28 perf.) It was the stage debut for Ivor Novello. Robert Loraine played Deburau.[5]
