Feydeau Plays: 2


Book Description

Kenneth McLeish's definitive translations of the most successful French dramatist of the Belle Epoque Georges Feydau (1862-1921) was the most successful French dramatist of the belle epoque and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest of farce-writers. His series of dazzling hits matched high-speed action and dialogue with ingenious plotting. Reaching the heights of farcical lunacy, his plays nevertheless contain touches of barbed social comment and allowed him to mention subjects which would have provoked outrage in the hands of more serious dramatists. This volume of new, sparkling translations by Kenneth McLeish contains two plays from the peak of his career, The Girl from Maxim 's and She's All Yours (La Main Passe), together with an early work, Jailbird (Gibier de potence).




A Flea in her Ear


Book Description

Eccentric and hillarious, Georges Feydeau’s much loved comedy mixes madness, mayhem, fun and frivolity. When the beautiful wife of Victor Chandebise suspects of having an affair, she enlists the help of her dearest friend to entrap him. Their plan to entice him to a rendezvous at the Hotel Coq D'or spectacularly misfires and chaos ensues. Set in the decadent surroundings of Belle Époque Paris, Feydeau's quintessential farce promises to be an exhilerating even of mistaken identities and comic disaster.




Sauce for the Goose


Book Description




An Absolute Turkey


Book Description

Georges Feydeau, master of farce, displays all his tricks of the trade in this witty, seamless and acutely funny translation. An Absolute Turkey was a West End hit following its London premiere at the Globe Theatre in 1993. “Sharp, natty, decorously indecent dialogue” - Sunday Times




The Lady from Maxim's


Book Description

Farce / 5m, 4f, extras / Unit set A normally sober doctor awakens to find that he brought two things home from Maxim's last night: a hangover and a lady of the evening. His wife is diverted from discovering the tart by one of her famous visitations from a popular saint. The doctor's uncle returns after a long army tour in Africa and promptly mistakes the lady from Maxim's for his nephew's wife. Uncle's immediate business is marrying off a niece to a young soldier who turns out to be the true




Godber Plays: 2


Book Description

"John Godber is one of the unsung heroes of British theatre, reaching the giddy heights of number three in the most-performed playwrights league table, nestled in behind Shakespeare and Ayckbourn" - Guardian Teechers: "In a class of its own ... Godber takes a hard-hitting look at life in a modern comprehensive where class conflicts, teacher tantrums and cavorting chaos runs riot through the corridors" The Express Happy Jack: "Godber manages with an affectionate and unerringly accurate ear for the tongues of the pit village to turn these two into a Chaucerian kind of celebration of life. At the end of the line the play is a sad, bruised but richly comic love story" Guardian September in the Rain: "The work of a genuinely talented playwright" Evening Standard Salt of the Earth: "John Godber has a special gift for capturing the lives and inner turmoil of the working class ... In the most subtle and incisive ways, he suggests how the combination of innate personality and a changing society determines individual destiny" Chicago Times




Paradise Hotel


Book Description

In a new translation of Feydeau's farce, a middle-aged man arranges a rendezvous in a small hotel with his best friend's beautiful young wife.




Ibsen Plays: 2


Book Description

This volume contains Ibsen's two most famous and frequently read, studied and performed plays about women: A Doll's House (1879), his first international success, which 'exploded like a bomb into contemporary life', and Hedda Gabler (1890), now one of his most popular plays, but greeted at first with bewilderment and outrage ('The play is simply a bad escape of moral sewage-gas' Pictorial World). Also included is An Enemy of the People (1883), whose central character was the actor Konstantin Stanislavski's favourite role.Michael Meyer's translations are 'crisp and cobweb-free, purged of verbal Victoriana' (Kenneth Tynan)




Division Street


Book Description

Radical friends of the 1960s reunite in a boarding house in Chicago. Characters include a black landlady with a Polish accent and a transexual cop.




A Little Hotel on the Side


Book Description

The translator of a popular version of Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear scored another success with this acclaimed farce at the National Theatre of Great Britain. More slam bang experiences in mistaken identities and sexual peccadillos, this hilarious story begins with M. Pinglet's efforts to have a fling with Mme. Paillardin, who is terminally bored with her husband. The lovers book a room in a very out of the way hotel which quickly becomes a destination for practically everyone they know.Large cast