The Flies was first produced in Paris on 3 June 1943.[10][4] The production ran at the Théâtre de la Cité.[11] Sartre had to get German censors to approve the play, because Paris was occupied by the German army.[11] A sculptor was employed to create "great blocks of stone", as well as settings, masks, and statues; large numbers of extras were also used.[12] During one of the rehearsals, a young man came up to Sartre and introduced himself; it turned out to be Albert Camus.[13] The production was poorly attended and got a lukewarm reception from critics.[2] Simone de Beauvoir's assessment of the play's effectiveness and reception was as follows: "It was impossible to mistake the play's implications; the word Liberty, dropped from Orestes' mouth, burst on us like a bomb. The German critic of Pariser Zeitung saw this very clearly, and said so, though at the same time taking the credit for giving the play a favorable notice. Michel Leiris praised The Flies in a clandestine edition of Les Lettres francaises, and emphasized its political significance. Most reviewers pretended not to have noticed any such allusion; they pitched into the play viciously, but, so they alleged, on purely literary grounds . . . "[13]
After a first smaller US production at Vassar College early in April 1947, the play received its New York City debut at the President Theatre on April 16, 1947. It was directed by the head of the Dramatic Workshop, German expatriate stage director Erwin Piscator. The New York Times' critic Lester Bernstein reacted favorably to the play and its production:
The Dramatic Workshop's skillful production takes this dramatic history of the play into full account by employing several theatrically effective devices, including a newsreel curtain-raiser depicting the Nazi heyday.[14]
