The Human Voice

The Human Voice (French: La Voix humaine) a 1930 play, first staged at the Comédie-Française in 1930, written by Jean Cocteau. It is a monologue set in Paris, where a middle-aged woman is speaking on the phone with her lover of the last five years. He is to marry another woman the next day, which causes her to despair. The monologue triggers the woman's crippling depression.

In 1948, Roberto Rossellini directed the film version of the play, an anthology film L'Amore which had two segments, "Il Miracolo" and "Una Voce Umana", the latter based on Cocteau's play. In 1959, Francis Poulenc composed an opera adaptation of the play. On May 4, 1967, the final installment of the television series ABC Stage 67 was a production of the play, starring Ingrid Bergman, who produced a commercial recording of it. There was also a 1998 BBC Radio production by Robin Rimbaud.