Orpheus, original title Orphée, is a stage play written by Jean Cocteau, produced in Paris 1926 by Georges Pitoëff and Ludmilla Pitoëff, with decors by Jean Hugo and costumes by Coco Chanel.[1]
The play was the first major work for the theater written by Cocteau. It is based on the myth of Orpheus, dealing largely with the supernatural.[2] While contemporary critics called the work "superficial," it has later been called "a brilliantly conceived homage to the supernatural".[3] Cocteau later, rather loosely, adapted the play to the better known film Orpheus (1950).[4][5]