Incident at Vichy is a one-act play written in 1964 by American dramatist Arthur Miller. It depicts a group of men who have been detained in Vichy France in 1942; they are being held for their "racial" inspection by German military officers and Vichy French police. The play focuses on the subjects of human nature, guilt, fear, and complicity and examines how the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust with so little resistance. Miller said of Incident at Vichy, "What is dark if not unknown is the relationship between those who side with justice and their implication in the evil they oppose. [...] The good and the evil are not compartments but two elements of a transaction." The play premiered on Broadway on December 3, 1964, at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in New York City. The production closed on May 7, 1965, after 32 performances. The cast included Michael Strong as LeBeau, Stanley Beck as Bayard, Paul Mann as Marchand, and David J. Stewart as Monceau. A London production in 1966 at the Phoenix Theatre starred Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle and Nigel Davenport. Miller adapted the play for a 1973 television production directed by Stacy Keach and starring Andy Robinson, Burt Freed, Harris Yulin, Richard Jordan and René Auberjonois. Characters Lebeau, a painter Bayard, an electrician Marchand, a businessman Police Guard (French) Monceau, an actor Gypsy Waiter Boy Major (German Army) First Detective (French) Old Jew Second Detective (French) Leduc, a psychiatrist Police Captain (French) Von Berg, a prince (Austrian) Professor Hoffman (a Nazi) Ferrand, a café proprietor Four Prisoners None of the characters in the play is referred to by name at any time, except for Von Berg and Ferrand. Synopsis and themes The first half of the play revolves around the characters' struggle to accept why they are there. With few exceptions, notably the gypsy and Von Berg, all the detainees are Jewish, and most have fled to Vichy from the German-occupied northern half of France. Nevertheless, though they clearly grasp the reality and seriousness of their situation, they persist in allowing themselves a state of denial about the motivations for their arrests and the fate that awaits them. Lebeau, Monceau, and Marchand all grasp for explanations: "It must be a routine document check." Bayard, who may or may not be Jewish, is an outspoken Communist who warns the detainees about trains going to Nazi concentration