Un fil à la patte ・ Comédie-Française

How does one get rid of a mistress when one plans to marry a rich heiress the same day?

This is the problem faced by Bois d’Enghien, whose lover, Lucette Gautier, is a music hall singer and the artist requested by Baroness Duverger to perform during the signing of her daughter’s marriage contract with... Bois d’Enghien. The lover manages to hold Lucette at bay and sidestep the cascade of events and misunderstandings that could expose his plan. To complete the picture we have a highly colourful gallery of characters: Bouzin, a seedy solicitor’s clerk and failed composer, the impetuous General Irrigua, who is in love with Lucette and desperate to make her his, and Viviane, the future bride who finds her fiancé too well-behaved and dreams of an experienced seducer, not forgetting a few servants, essential cogs in the vaudeville machinery.

Georges Feydeau, the author
A precocious author of vaudevilles, Feydeau staged his first play when 19, Out the Window (1882). He struggled to make an impact apart from one early hit, A Gown for His Mistress at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in 1886. His talent won through in 1892 with Monsieur Goes Hunting! He went from triumph to triumph: Fly in the Ointment (1894), Hotel Paradiso (1894), The Dupe (1896),The Girl from Maxim’s (1899), A Flea in Her Ear (1907),Keep an Eye on Amélie (1908), so many plays that have become classics. He later abandoned the mechanics of vaudeville to compose one-act conjugal farces: Madame’s Late mother (1908) Going to Pot (1910), Don’t Go Walking Around Naked! (1912).

Jérôme Deschamps, the director
A director, author and actor, Jérôme Deschamps was a pensionnaire of the Comédie-Française from 1974 to 1976. In 1979, he founded the Famille Deschiens company with Macha Makeïeff, staging with her a series of productions that he wrote and directed. Among his many successes let us mention Courteline en dentelles (Courteline in Lace) (2011), Salle des fêtes (Village Hall) (2008), Les Étourdis (Dazed) (2004), La Cour des grands (The Big League) (2001) andLes Pensionnaires (The Residents) (1999). His television series, Les Deschiens, helped to popularise the company’s work. Along with his own productions, he has directed plays by Molière (The Affected Young Ladies), Henri Monnier (The Wicked Life), Eugène Labiche (The Lourcine Street Affair), and several operas. Since 2007, he has been artistic director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Fly in the Ointment received three Molière awards in 2011.