Introduction: Georges Feydeau, or Georges-Leon-Jules-Marie Feydeau, was born December 8, 1862 in Paris, France. He died June 5, 1921 in Paris. Feydeau was a very popular French dramatist in Paris. Known for his works being sex farces. His plays had such success because of their plots: liked writing about “cuckolds, silly wives, foreigners, the aged, and the deformed” (Encyclopedia Britannica). He made use of complicated mechanical props and elaborate stage settings. Plays also a success because France in need of laughter after the hard times they were going through.
Biography:
Born December 8, 1862 in Paris, France to parents Léocadie Boguslawa Zalewska and Ernest Feydeau. There are many rumors that he could have been fathered by two other men, one being Napoleon III. (Mills) It is said that historians have ruled out Napoleon being his father though, and of course the most likely father is his mother’s husband. His father, Ernest Feydeau, was a writer, which is what introduced Georges to it. Georges was a young man when he was first introduced and exposed to theatre in a city that was considered “the intellectual and artistic capital for the western world.” (Britannica) He started writing monologues at around age twenty and moved on to bigger things since then. After his father died, Georges mother remarried and she and her new husband tried to convince him not to chase a career in theater. Georges did not listen to this and continued on with his work. (Gale Reference Team) Georges married a woman named Carolus-Duran, who was the daughter of a wealthy painter. This is important because with the financial help from his father-in-law, in 1890 Georges was able to spend a few years studying other playwrights and taking a break from his own writing so that he could develop and work on his personal style of writing. (Fun with Feydeau) Georges is well known for his farce, and more specifically sex farce. “Feydeau understood the mechanics of farce supremely well, moving his plot with enormous speed, invariably bringing the wrong people together at the wrong moment, and usually leaving a character caught, literally, with his trousers down.” (Banham) After some years, he and his wife separated and eventually divorced. After the divorce he did have a different perspective on marriage and how he felt about wives and this can be seen in a change in style of his writing afterwards. (Banham) “He divorced his wife in 1916 after an unhappy marriage that is perhaps reflected in his last five short plays, where the wife is a vixen of the sort who persecutes her husband almost to the point of madness” (Mills) It is said that the best play he wrote was The Lady From Maxim’s. However, the play that is most performed in English in America by Feydeau is A Flea in Her Ear. Georges died in 1921 in Paris, France and is buried in Cimetière de Montmartre. “Still enormously popular in France, his plays have been translated into dozens of languages despite difficulties posed by his frequent use of double-entendre and innuendo, and they are regularly performed in more than seventy countries.” (Gale Reference Team)
Works:
Eglantine d’Amboise 1873 Par la fenêtre 1882 Amour et Piano 1883 Gibier de potence Fiancés en herbe 1886 Tailleur pour dames La Lycéenne 1887 Un bain de ménage 1888 Chat en poche Les Fiancés de Loches L’Affaire Édouard 1889 C’est une femme du monde! 1890 Le Mariage de Barillon Monsieur chasse 1892 Champignol malgré lui Le Système Ribadier Un fil à la patte 1894 Notre futur Le Ruban L'Hôtel du libre échange Le Dindon 1896 Les Pavés de l’ours Séance de nuit 1897 Dormez, je le veux! La Dame de chez Maxim 1899 La Duchesse des Folies-Bergères 1902 La Main passe 1904 L'Âge d’or 1905 Le Bourgeon 1906 La Puce à l’oreille 1907 Occupe-toi d’Amélie 1908 Feu la mère de madame Le Circuit 1909 On purge bébé 1910 Mais n'te promène donc pas toute nue! 1911Léonie est en avance ou le Mal joli Cent Millions qui tombent On va faire la cocotte 1913 Je ne trompe pas mon mari 1914 Hortense a dit : "Je m'en fous!” 1916
Eglantine Amboise By the Window Love and Piano Gallows-Bird Betrothed Budding Ladies Tailor The Lycéenne A Cleaning Bath Pig In A Poke The Betrothed Loches The Island Case She Is A Woman of The World! The Marriage of Barillon Mr. Hunting Champignol Despite Himself Le Système Ribadier A Strings Attached Our Future The Ribbon L'Hôtel du libre échange The Turkey The Pavers Bear Evening Session Sleep, I do! La Dame de chez Maxim The Duchess Folies-Bergeres Hand Passes The Golden Age Bud A Flea in Her Ear Take Care of Amélie Late Mother Mrs. The Circuit On purge bébé But n'te therefore not walk naked! Leonie Is Ahead or Pretty Evil Hundred Million Falling We Will Make The Casserole I Do Not Deceive My Husband Hortense Said: "I Do Not Care!"
Feydeau Play Characteristics:
“To a greater degree than earlier authors of farces, Feydeau made use of complicated mechanical props and elaborate stage settings. But, above all, his farces depend for their success on their plots.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
“The dramatist is not interested in what people should be, or even, on occasion, aspire to be, but rather with what they almost inevitably, and amusingly, are” (“Feydeau; Father of Pure Farce”)
"Feydeau, Georges (1862 - 1921)." The Cambridge Guide to Theater. Ed. Martin Banham . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Credo Reference. Web. Mar 2015.
"Georges Feydeau | Biography - French Dramatist." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015. Web. Mar. 2015.
Mills, James. "About the Playwright: Georges Feydeau." About the Playwright: Georges Feydeau. Utah Shakespeare Festival, 2013. Web. Mar. 2015.
"Fun with Feydeau." : The Life and Death of Georges Feydeau. N.p., n.d. Web. Mar. 2015.
Gale Reference Team. "Biography - Feydeau, Georges (Leon Jules Marie) (1862-1921)." Contemporary Authors. N.p.: Thomson Gale, 2002. N. pag. Print.
“Feydeau; Father of Pure Farce,” [Theatre Arts, April 1957], 66,86
"A Flea in Her Ear - Act 1." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. May 2015.
"A Flea in Her Ear - Act 2." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. May 2015.
"A Flea in Her Ear - Act 3." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. May 2015.
Georges Feydeau (1862-1921)
Introduction:
Georges Feydeau, or Georges-Leon-Jules-Marie Feydeau, was born December 8, 1862 in Paris, France. He died June 5, 1921 in Paris. Feydeau was a very popular French dramatist in Paris. Known for his works being sex farces. His plays had such success because of their plots: liked writing about “cuckolds, silly wives, foreigners, the aged, and the deformed” (Encyclopedia Britannica). He made use of complicated mechanical props and elaborate stage settings.
Plays also a success because France in need of laughter after the hard times they were going through.
Biography:
Born December 8, 1862 in Paris, France to parents Léocadie Boguslawa Zalewska and Ernest Feydeau. There are many rumors that he could have been fathered by two other men, one being Napoleon III. (Mills) It is said that historians have ruled out Napoleon being his father though, and of course the most likely father is his mother’s husband. His father, Ernest Feydeau, was a writer, which is what introduced Georges to it.Georges was a young man when he was first introduced and exposed to theatre in a city that was considered “the intellectual and artistic capital for the western world.” (Britannica) He started writing monologues at around age twenty and moved on to bigger things since then.
After his father died, Georges mother remarried and she and her new husband tried to convince him not to chase a career in theater. Georges did not listen to this and continued on with his work. (Gale Reference Team)
Georges married a woman named Carolus-Duran, who was the daughter of a wealthy painter. This is important because with the financial help from his father-in-law, in 1890 Georges was able to spend a few years studying other playwrights and taking a break from his own writing so that he could develop and work on his personal style of writing. (Fun with Feydeau)
Georges is well known for his farce, and more specifically sex farce. “Feydeau understood the mechanics of farce supremely well, moving his plot with enormous speed, invariably bringing the wrong people together at the wrong moment, and usually leaving a character caught, literally, with his trousers down.” (Banham)
After some years, he and his wife separated and eventually divorced. After the divorce he did have a different perspective on marriage and how he felt about wives and this can be seen in a change in style of his writing afterwards. (Banham) “He divorced his wife in 1916 after an unhappy marriage that is perhaps reflected in his last five short plays, where the wife is a vixen of the sort who persecutes her husband almost to the point of madness” (Mills)
It is said that the best play he wrote was The Lady From Maxim’s. However, the play that is most performed in English in America by Feydeau is A Flea in Her Ear.
Georges died in 1921 in Paris, France and is buried in Cimetière de Montmartre.
“Still enormously popular in France, his plays have been translated into dozens of languages despite difficulties posed by his frequent use of double-entendre and innuendo, and they are regularly performed in more than seventy countries.” (Gale Reference Team)
Works:
Eglantine d’Amboise 1873Par la fenêtre 1882
Amour et Piano 1883
Gibier de potence
Fiancés en herbe 1886
Tailleur pour dames
La Lycéenne 1887
Un bain de ménage 1888
Chat en poche
Les Fiancés de Loches
L’Affaire Édouard 1889
C’est une femme du monde! 1890
Le Mariage de Barillon
Monsieur chasse 1892
Champignol malgré lui
Le Système Ribadier
Un fil à la patte 1894
Notre futur
Le Ruban
L'Hôtel du libre échange
Le Dindon 1896
Les Pavés de l’ours
Séance de nuit 1897
Dormez, je le veux!
La Dame de chez Maxim 1899
La Duchesse des Folies-Bergères 1902
La Main passe 1904
L'Âge d’or 1905
Le Bourgeon 1906
La Puce à l’oreille 1907
Occupe-toi d’Amélie 1908
Feu la mère de madame
Le Circuit 1909
On purge bébé 1910
Mais n'te promène donc pas toute nue! 1911Léonie est en avance ou le Mal joli
Cent Millions qui tombent
On va faire la cocotte 1913
Je ne trompe pas mon mari 1914
Hortense a dit : "Je m'en fous!” 1916
Eglantine Amboise
By the Window
Love and Piano
Gallows-Bird
Betrothed Budding
Ladies Tailor
The Lycéenne
A Cleaning Bath
Pig In A Poke
The Betrothed Loches
The Island Case
She Is A Woman of The World!
The Marriage of Barillon
Mr. Hunting
Champignol Despite Himself
Le Système Ribadier
A Strings Attached
Our Future
The Ribbon
L'Hôtel du libre échange
The Turkey
The Pavers Bear
Evening Session
Sleep, I do!
La Dame de chez Maxim
The Duchess Folies-Bergeres
Hand Passes
The Golden Age
Bud
A Flea in Her Ear
Take Care of Amélie
Late Mother Mrs.
The Circuit
On purge bébé
But n'te therefore not walk naked!
Leonie Is Ahead or Pretty Evil
Hundred Million Falling
We Will Make The Casserole
I Do Not Deceive My Husband
Hortense Said: "I Do Not Care!"
Feydeau Play Characteristics:
“To a greater degree than earlier authors of farces, Feydeau made use of complicated mechanical props and elaborate stage settings. But, above all, his farces depend for their success on their plots.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
“The dramatist is not interested in what people should be, or even, on occasion, aspire to be, but rather with what they almost inevitably, and amusingly, are” (“Feydeau; Father of Pure Farce”)
A Flea In Her Ear
A Flea in Her Ear - Act 1
A Flea in Her Ear - Act 2
A Flea in Her Ear - Act 3
Work Cited:
"Feydeau, Georges (1862 - 1921)." The Cambridge Guide to Theater. Ed. Martin Banham . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Credo Reference. Web. Mar 2015."Georges Feydeau | Biography - French Dramatist." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015. Web. Mar. 2015.
Mills, James. "About the Playwright: Georges Feydeau." About the Playwright: Georges Feydeau. Utah Shakespeare Festival, 2013. Web. Mar. 2015.
"Fun with Feydeau." : The Life and Death of Georges Feydeau. N.p., n.d. Web. Mar. 2015.
Gale Reference Team. "Biography - Feydeau, Georges (Leon Jules Marie) (1862-1921)." Contemporary Authors. N.p.: Thomson Gale, 2002. N. pag. Print.
“Feydeau; Father of Pure Farce,” [Theatre Arts, April 1957], 66,86
"A Flea in Her Ear - Act 1." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. May 2015.
"A Flea in Her Ear - Act 2." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. May 2015.
"A Flea in Her Ear - Act 3." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. May 2015.