The Breasts of Tiresias () is a surrealist play in two acts and a prologue by Guillaume Apollinaire, premiered at the conservatoire Maubel (now the ) on 24 June 1917. The production was by Pierre Albert-Birot, sets by and costumes by . The music for piano was by .

Apollinaire subtitled his work drame surréalisteBreton, André. The Magnetic Fields. English translation and introduction by David Gascoyne. (London: Atlas Press, 1997). p. 39. With this subtitle and in the preface to the play, the poet invented the word "surrealism" to describe his new style of drama.Banham (1998, 1043).

The play has been adapted into an opera by Francis Poulenc. It also has been translated twice, first by Louis Simpson in the 1960s and then by Maya Slater in 2009. In 2010, Eric Wallach adapted and directed The Breasts of Tiresias: A Surrealist Musical in Paris.

The myth of Tiresias There are several alternate accounts of how Tiresias lost his sight and became a clairvoyant. The one relevant to Apollinaire's play is the version recounted by Ovid in Book of his Metamorphoses, which involves Tiresias changing gender.

Tiresias was walking in the forest and came across two serpents mating. He strikes them with his staff, and is transformed into a woman. After eight years living as a woman, he sees the same serpents, again mating, and says to himself, "If the blow you have received is so powerful that it can completely alter the fate of the one who dealt it, I shall strike you once more." He strikes them again, and is transformed back into a man.Ovid. Metamorphoses, Book , lines 319-331.

The gods Jupiter and Juno were arguing over who gets the greatest pleasure from sex, and Jupiter decides to ask Tiresias for a judgement, as the only person who has lived both genders. Tiresias declares that women get the majority of the pleasure. Juno, outraged, blinds Tiresias. Jupiter, unable to cancel the acts of another god, gives Tiresias the ability to read the future in compensation.Ovid. Metamorphoses, Book , lines 332-338.

Genesis of the play In December 1916, the poet Pierre Albert-Birot asked Apollinaire to write a play. Apollinaire agreed, saying that he had a play started well before the war, in 1903, and almost completed. In fact, what he had was just a few notes on a burlesque idea: a woman decides to change her gender, and her breasts—represented by balloons—fly away from her bodice. Apollinaire set to work, writing and rewriting his play as he gave readings at the homes of designer and Albert-Birot. He made profound changes to his text during rehearsals, depending on the effect they produced, as Albert-Birot attests:

Plot Inspired by the story of the Theban soothsayer Tiresias, the author inverted the myth to produce a provocative interpretation with feminist and pacifist elements. He tells the story of Thérèse, who changes her sex to obtain power among men, with the aim of changing customs, subverting the past, and establishing equality between the sexes.

Prologue

Written in free verse, the character of the Theatre Director addresses the audience directly. He laments the destruction wrought by war, accusing the enemies of 'extinguishing the stars' and 'murdering the constellations'. Then, in a defence of modern art, he sets out a new conception of theatre—envisioning, for example, a reorganisation of the stage space—and proclaims:

Act

The play takes us to Zanzibar, a country lacking in children, an allegory for France at war. The heroine, Thérèse, after a series of feminist proclamations, makes it known that she refuses her duty to procreate, and chooses a man’s name for herself: Tirésias. Her feminine attributes—two balloons—detach from her bodice and float away into the air, whilst a beard begins to grow on her face. Tirésias then forces her husband to dress in women’s clothing and leaves it to him to procreate in turn. He gives birth to 40,050 babies in a single day.

Act

Thérèse reconsiders her decision and promises to give birth to twice as many children as her husband.

References

Sources Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. . Brockett, Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy. 2003. History of the Theatre. Ninth edition, International edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. .

External links Les Mamelles de Tirésias (full text in French)