Hotel Paradiso
by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallieres, translated by Peter Glenville.
November 26th to 29th 2008
Directed by Alan Matthews
Georges Feydeau was a French playwright of the era known as La Belle Epoque and was known for his many lively farces, one of the favourites of which is Hotel Paradiso.
Monsieur Feydeau has writer's block, and he needs a new play so he takes an opportunity to observe the Parisienne upper class - Monsieur Boniface and his domineering wife, and their neighbours; the neglectful husband Henri with his beautiful but ignored wife Marcelle. Henri plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso; but this hotel is also the assignation spot of Marcelle and Boniface.
One wife, two husbands, a nephew, and the perky Boniface maid, all at this 'by the hour' hotel, and consummation of the affair is, to say the least, severely compromised (not the least by a police raid). All of this under Feydeau's eye, and his play is the 'success fou' of the next season.