The Love of Four Colonels

by Peter Ustinov

In the conference room of a four-power zone in Germany, four Colo-nels, representing their respective countries, The United States, England, France, and Russia, are apparently getting nowhere with their negotiations except deeper into a mess of red tape. A man called the Wicked Fairy drops in on them and invites them to accompany him to a nearby castle, which they do. Soon joined by the Good Fairy, at the castle they discover The Sleeping Beauty. Each of the Colonels sees her as his own particular ideal the Frenchman as an eighteenth-century lass of the boulevards, the Russian as a flaxed-haired figure out of Chekhov, the Englishman as something virginally Elizabethan, and the American as a moll in an all-night dive. The Colonels each get a chance to waken and claim her, but they all fail, surrendering the illusion that they had long cherished. The American and the Frenchman, however, decide to stay at the castle for the next hundred years and take another chance at making their dreams come true.

Genres: Plays

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE, was a English actor, writer and dramatist.

He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, director, stage designer, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter.

A noted wit and raconteur, he was, for much of his career, a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits, as well as a respected intellectual and diplomat who, in addition to his various academic posts, served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and President of the World Federalist Movement.

Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards over his life, including Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards, as well the recipient of governmental honours from, amongst others, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He displayed a unique cultural versatility that has frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance Man.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Anton Segers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Saai geklets. Acteurs blijven best acteren, en niet schrijven.