“HOTEL PARADISO"

 

English adaptation by Peter Glenville

 

Performed at the Nuffield Theatre on 19th to 24th June, 1978

 

Cast in order of appearance

Boniface

Graham Buchanan

Angelique

Julie Baker

Mareelle

Mollie Manns

Cot

David Pike

Maxime

Robert Smith

Victoire

Angela Stansbridge

Martin

Ken Spencer

Martin’s Daughters

Hazel Burrows, Joanna Hudek, Gillian Roberts, Kate Summerton, Sandy White, Georgina Williams

Aniello

David Jupp

Georges

Peter White

A lady

Lynda Edwards

A Duke

Tony Lawther

Tabu

John Burrows

Inspector Bouchard

Geoff Wharam

Porters and Policemen

Terry Handley, Paul Lucas, Mike Johnson, Monty Rose, Brendan Taggart, Ron Tillyer

 

 

 

For The Maskers

Designed and Directed by

Kenneth Spencer

Technical Director

Ron Tillyer

Stage Manager

Joy Wingfield

Stage Assistants

Valerie Barwell, Jacquie Mitchell

Set ConstructionJ

John Riggs, Alan Baker, Mike Johnson

Scenic Artists

Kenneth Spencer, Hazel Burrows

Wardrobe Mistress

Lillian Gunstone

Wardrobe Assistant

Doreen Andrews

Wardrobe Hire

Salisbury Playhouse

Sound

Mike McDermid

Lighting

Roger Lockett

Lighting Design

Derek Jones

Business Manager

Brian Stansbridge

Publicity

Graham Buchanan

 


 

 

George Feydeau,

Georges Feydeau was  born in Paris on December 8, 1862, the son  of Ernest Feydeau, a writer who published The History of Funeral Customs and Burial Rights of Ancient Peoples in the same year that saw the birth of his son, who was to make all Paris roar with laughter. Young Georges was a charming and very lazy child who at the age of six or seven, after his first visit to the theatre, took his school notebook and began to write a play. His astounded father excused him for not doing his lessons that day, and the boy continued to write whenever he did not wish to study. By the time he was in secondary school, he was writing sprightly dialogues. His first play to be produced in Paris was Love and Piano, a one-act comedy. In the same year, Feydeau, who had shown considerable talent as an amateur actor, was invited to join the company at the Vaudeville. He missed being hired, and thus perhaps lost as a dramatist, only because the director was late for their appointment.

 

Feydeau wrote his first big hit, A Gown for His Mistress, while he was in military service in 1884. He then went through a difficult period of rejections by director after director. Then, in 1892, Monsieur Goes Hunting  was produced at the Palais-Royal and ran for 1,000 performances, and Champignol in Spite of Himself was produced at the Theatre des Nouveautes and ran for several performances longer.

 

Feydeau’s triumphant career brought him both fame and money and reached a climax with Keep an Eye on Amelie in 1908. His laziness was now as fabled as his charm and wit, and at this point he began to invest in the stock market. He was lucky at first but then lost heavily and had to begin to write again, producing the series of one-act plays that he considered publishing under the collective title From Marriage to Divorce, since they were all concerned with  the hazards of middle-class marriage. These were all written and produced immediately before World War I.

 

Hotel Paradiso, written in 1894, is an excellent example of the classic Feydeau farce, with its fast action and uproariously complicated plot.

 

Feydeau died in Paris on June 5th, 1921.