Indiscretions, under its original title Les Parents Terribles, was first produced in 1938 at the Théatre des Ambassadeurs, which was owned by the Municipal Council of Paris. Though the play was popular with the public, it was accused of immorality due to its portrayal of an incestuous family relationship and was banned by the Municipal Council from the city-owned theater. It reopened the following year at the Théatre des Bouffes-Parisiens, where it continued to play to packed houses. By the time the play was revived in 1941, the Nazis had occupied Paris, and France's Vichy government was collaborating with them. Attacks on the play's supposed immorality escalated, and members of France's fascist party, the Parti Populaire Francais, threw tear gas at the actors. The Germans closed the play.

Critic Raymond Bach, in his “Cocteau and Vichy: Family Disconnections” (1993), argues that the play's portrayal of...