One could say that all plays, even those with an international reputation, are best understood within their national, ethnic and cultural contexts. But very few plays can be as intimately attached to their author, his city, his family, his friends and enemies, and fellow citizens in general, as the Jeu de la feuillée, written by the trouvére Adam de la Halle, and staged by him in 1276, in the Petite Place of the town of Arras. For the protagonist of the play is Adam himself, and some of the other characters are real people connected with him. This is a play of unrivalled audacity, in which Adam exposes himself for public scrutiny. He deals openly with his own ambitions and frustrations, with his intimate relations with his wife and his troubled relationship with his father, and with the lives of his friends and neighbours. All this is unfolded in front of an audience holding his acquaintances, some of whom are equally satirized in the play.