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 match 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 his two masterpieces, Heart's Desire Hotel (L'Hôtel du libre échange) and Sauce For the Goose (Le Dindon), with three other plays from the peak of his career, The One That Got Away (Monsieur Chasse!), Now You See It (Le System Ribadier) and Pig in a Poke (Chat en poche).

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.

(Applause Books). Feydeau was the greatest of a great age of French farceurs and the first to enter the modern repertory. Of the more than 40 plays Feydeau wrote, over a third were one-acts. In this volume, Shapiro has selected and translated eight of these one-act plays, among them Feydeau's first and last works. Includes: Ladies' Man * Wooed and Viewed * Romance in A Flat * Fit to Be Tried, or, Stepbrothers in Crime * Mixed Doubles * The Boor Hug * Caught with His Trance Down * Tooth and Consequences, or, Hortense Said: "No Skin Off My Ass!"

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

Wild plots and quicksilver wit characterize the plays of Georges Feydeau. Called the greatest master of French comedy since Moliere by admirers such as Kenneth Tynan, Feydeau reflects the lusty tradition of the French bedroom farce as well as the tough exorbitant humor later to find full expression in the theater of the absurd. The plays offered in this volume represent the major stages of Feydeau's career. The one-act Wooed and Viewed was his first comedy, written in 1880. On the Marry-go-Wrong shows Feydeau on the way to becoming a master of mad imbroglio, a talent that he demonstrates in Not by Bed Alone. Going to Pot is a one-act play of conjugal strife of the emotional intensity that marked his work toward the end of his career.

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