Four Farces

Wild plots and quicksilver wit characterize the plays of Georges Feydeau. Called the greatest master of French comedy since Moliere by admirers such as Kenneth Tynan, Feydeau reflects the lusty tradition of the French bedroom farce as well as the tough exorbitant humor later to find full expression in the theater of the absurd. The plays offered in this volume represent the major stages of Feydeau's career. The one-act Wooed and Viewed was his first comedy, written in 1880. On the Marry-go-Wrong shows Feydeau on the way to becoming a master of mad imbroglio, a talent that he demonstrates in Not by Bed Alone. Going to Pot is a one-act play of conjugal strife of the emotional intensity that marked his work toward the end of his career.