The Satin Slipper

The Satin Slipper is a sweeping drama, set in the Spanish empire at the turn of the sixteenth century and permeated with a heady brew of Catholic doctrine and devotion. Colossal in scope, the play makes all the world its stage, centering on the love between the passionate Rodrigo and the self-sacrificing Prouheze, wife to Rodrigo’s rapacious rival. Around his two primary subjects, Claudel weaves a vastly intricate tapestry of politics, metaphysics, and poignant lyricism, to express how “all things minister to a Divine Purpose and so to one another.… Even the falterings of circumstance and the patternings of personality, sin and falsehood, are made to serve truth and justice, and above all, salvation in the long run.” Hailed as “Claudel’s single greatest achievement” and “the most remarkable of his dramas,” The Satin Slipper also holds the distinction of being recognized by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) as “a most convincing” depiction of the drama of faith and the intricacies of divine providence. Lord, it is not so easy to escape You, and, if he goes not to You by what he has of light, let him go to You by what he has of darkness; and if not by what he has of straight, may he go to You by what he has of indirection; and if not by what he has of simple, let him go by what in him is manifold and laborious and entangled… (Paul Claudel)