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Boulevard Comedies
Disparaged as potboilers and disdained as "mere entertainment", boulevard comedies are traditionally given short shrift by critics - although audiences have warmed to them for over two hundred years. These are the comedies and farces about infidelity, mistaken identity and misguided amours that have no "redeeming social value". They simply make people laugh. In France, they have been the mainstay of the commercial theatre for over a century and often when 'high art' emptied the playhouses, these comedies have played to Standing Room Only.
In freely translating three of these perennial comedies, Charles Marowitz has demonstrated that, fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong. There is brilliance and buouyancy in these works and, Marowitz has given them a face-lift, a shot of adrenaline and a new lease-on-life.
The volume contains:
- Henry Becque's La Parisienne, the grand-daddy of all triangular comedies,
- Naked Lady, one of Feydeaus' more outrageous affronts against the bourgeoisie
- Quack, a musical-vaudeville based on Moliere's The Doctor in Spite of Himself with music by Michael Valenti.
All in brand-new traslations and adaptations.
>About the Author:
Charles Marowitz is the author of Sex Wars, free adaptations of works by Ibsen and Strindberg. His new English Version of Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac was published by Smith & Kraus in 1996. He has translated the work of Eugene Ionesco (Makbett), Fernando Arrabal (And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers), Carl Sternheim's The Snob and Nikolai Gogol's Marriage. His original plays include Sherlock's Last Case, which premiered on Broadway with Frank Langella, Artaud at Rodez, Wilde West, Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life and Stage Fright, a new black comedy.
In freely translating three of these perennial comedies, Charles Marowitz has demonstrated that, fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong. There is brilliance and buouyancy in these works and, Marowitz has given them a face-lift, a shot of adrenaline and a new lease-on-life.
The volume contains:
- Henry Becque's La Parisienne, the grand-daddy of all triangular comedies,
- Naked Lady, one of Feydeaus' more outrageous affronts against the bourgeoisie
- Quack, a musical-vaudeville based on Moliere's The Doctor in Spite of Himself with music by Michael Valenti.
All in brand-new traslations and adaptations.
>About the Author:
Charles Marowitz is the author of Sex Wars, free adaptations of works by Ibsen and Strindberg. His new English Version of Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac was published by Smith & Kraus in 1996. He has translated the work of Eugene Ionesco (Makbett), Fernando Arrabal (And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers), Carl Sternheim's The Snob and Nikolai Gogol's Marriage. His original plays include Sherlock's Last Case, which premiered on Broadway with Frank Langella, Artaud at Rodez, Wilde West, Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life and Stage Fright, a new black comedy.
121 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 17, 2019
This is how you do bawdy, low-brow humor.
These loose translations of three of France’s great comedic playwrights are hilariously naughty. They’re also nicely pointed and adept at mocking society’s pretensions. From see-through lingerie to lumberjack doctors, these three translations would be a delight to see staged.
Of the three, I found the translations of Becque’s La Parisienne the most intriguing, likely because I liked its deft combination of marital infidelity, politics, and the machinations involved in both. Highly recommended.
These loose translations of three of France’s great comedic playwrights are hilariously naughty. They’re also nicely pointed and adept at mocking society’s pretensions. From see-through lingerie to lumberjack doctors, these three translations would be a delight to see staged.
Of the three, I found the translations of Becque’s La Parisienne the most intriguing, likely because I liked its deft combination of marital infidelity, politics, and the machinations involved in both. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review