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It is Paris in the Spring of 1907, in the drawing room at the home of Victor Emmanuel and Raymonde Chandebise. Lucienne Homenides de Histangua is waiting to Raymonde having been urgently summoned by her old friend. She is perplexed by Victor's nephew Camille, whose speech impediment caused by a cleft palate is so alien it seems he is speaking a foreign language. Doctor Finache comes and goes, bringing Victor the result of a medical examination he has performed on Victor's prospective new client, coincidentally Lucienne's husband.
When Raymonde returns home she explains to her friend the reason she asked her to call. She suspects her husband of having an affair since he seems to have lost all passionate interest in her recently. She is determined to catch her husband in the act of his infidelity and Lucienne suggests to Raymonde a way in which that might be acheived. She must send Victor a letter as from an imaginary secret admirer proposing a rendevous at the Hotel Coq D'Or (Golden Cock). Raymonde must keep the appointment, and if her husband turns up she will have her proof. Raymonde accepts the idea, but fearing Victor will recognise her handwriting insists that Lucienne write the letter.
Lucienne departs with the letter when Victor arrives home with his friend Tournel. The doctor returns and in private Victor confides in him that a nervous condition has suppressed his libido (the reason for his apparent loss of interest in his wife). When the letter arrives, Victor is flattered but then becomes convinced the letter was intended for Tournel, a womanising bachelor who has designs on Raymonde, whom he sends off to keep the assignation.
When Lucienne's husband, Carlos Homenides de Histangua, a stereotypically hot-blooded spaniard, arrives Victor shows him the letter. Carlos is horrified to recognise his wife's handwriting and swears to kill her and her paramour. He races off to the hotel to make good his threat. Victor sends his butler to warn Tournel and Lucienne, following along himself soon after.
At the hotel Raymonde is waiting to confront Victor when Tournel arrives instead and immediately attempts to seduce her. The Butler arrives to warn Tournel but is distracted when he sees his wife there on a romantic tryst of her own with Camille. Tournel and Raymonde encounter Poche, the bell-hop, who is a perfect look-alike for Victor and assume Victor has followed Tournel to catch them in an affair. Lucienne arrives looking for Raymonde followed by Carlos brandishing a pistol. Then Victor arrives and is immediately mistaken by the hotel owner, Augustin, for the workshy Poche. Add to this mix a randy German hotel guest, Herr Schwarz, and Augustin's vamp of a wife Olympe and the scene is set for a bewildering series of chases, scrapes and misadventures as the story builds to a hilarious climax.
Although not a professional organisation, the Bingley Little Theatre is run on professional lines and can boast a company of performers, set builders and costumiers of considerable ability. Feydeau's classic comedy is notoriously difficult to stage with over three hundred stage entrances and exits, often in rapid succession and all requiring perfect timing. For a small theatre company to acheive this so well is a considerable accomplishment. The action in fact was relentless, and the humour ran on apace with numerous comedic set pieces that brought tears to the eyes. The choice of a geordie accent for Poche was on the face of it a little odd for a piece set in France but was no doubt intended to underline the working class nature of the character and distinguish him from the well-spoken Victor. The set was well-designed and cleverly put together with reversible hinged panels that permit the transformation from the Chandebise's living room to the Hotel Coq D'Or with remarkable rapidity (done with open curtains). The costumes likewise were true to the period and in most part gave no indication of being anything less than the real thing.
There were no well known or even professional performers in this production, but most worthy of mention were: Anthony Morton who coped admirably in the dual role of Victor Emmanuel Chandebise with never a mis-step in switching between characters and accents; Philip Jordan as Camille Chandebise whose speech impediment and barely intelligible addresses to the the audience provided some of the funniest moments of the evening; Liz Hall as a suitably haughty Raymonde Chandebise; Allan Hollings as a suave Romain Tournel; Anna Yeadon as Lucienne Homenides de Histangua; and Anthony Calvert as a hilariously hot-headed Carlos Homenides de Histangua.
A fast-paced riotous farce.