Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau[n 1] (French: [Ê'É"Ê Ê' fÉ›.do]; 8
December 1862 â€" 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the era
known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his farces, written
between 1886 and 1914.Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class
parents and raised in an artistic and literary environment. From an
early age he was fascinated by the theatre, and as a child he wrote
his first plays and organised his schoolfellows into a drama group. In
his teens he wrote comic monologues and moved on to writing plays. His
first full-length comedy, Tailleur pour dames (Ladies' Tailor), was
well received, but was followed by a string of comparative failures.
He gave up writing for a time in the early 1890s and studied the
methods of earlier masters of French comedy, particularly Eugène
Labiche, Alfred Hennequin and Henri Meilhac. With his technique honed,
and sometimes in collaboration with a co-author, he wrote sixteen
full-length plays between 1892 and 1916, many of which have become
staples of the theatrical repertoire in France and abroad. They
include L'Hôtel du libre échange (The Free Exchange Hotel, 1894), La
Dame de chez Maxim (The Lady from Maxim's, 1899), La Puce à l'oreille
(A Flea in Her Ear, 1907) and Occupe-toi d'Amélie! (Look After
Amélie, 1908).The plays of Feydeau are marked by closely observed
characters, with whom his audiences could identify, plunged into
fast-moving comic plots of mistaken identity, attempted adultery,
split-second timing and a precariously happy ending. After the great
success they enjoyed in his lifetime they were neglected after his
death, until the 1940s and 1950s, when productions by Jean-Louis
Barrault and the Comédie-Française led a revival of interest in his
works, at first in Paris and subsequently worldwide.Feydeau's personal
life was marred by depression, unsuccessful gambling and divorce. In
1919 his mental condition deteriorated sharply and he spent his final
two years in a sanatorium in Paris. He died there in 1921 at the age
of fifty-eight.
December 1862 â€" 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the era
known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his farces, written
between 1886 and 1914.Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class
parents and raised in an artistic and literary environment. From an
early age he was fascinated by the theatre, and as a child he wrote
his first plays and organised his schoolfellows into a drama group. In
his teens he wrote comic monologues and moved on to writing plays. His
first full-length comedy, Tailleur pour dames (Ladies' Tailor), was
well received, but was followed by a string of comparative failures.
He gave up writing for a time in the early 1890s and studied the
methods of earlier masters of French comedy, particularly Eugène
Labiche, Alfred Hennequin and Henri Meilhac. With his technique honed,
and sometimes in collaboration with a co-author, he wrote sixteen
full-length plays between 1892 and 1916, many of which have become
staples of the theatrical repertoire in France and abroad. They
include L'Hôtel du libre échange (The Free Exchange Hotel, 1894), La
Dame de chez Maxim (The Lady from Maxim's, 1899), La Puce à l'oreille
(A Flea in Her Ear, 1907) and Occupe-toi d'Amélie! (Look After
Amélie, 1908).The plays of Feydeau are marked by closely observed
characters, with whom his audiences could identify, plunged into
fast-moving comic plots of mistaken identity, attempted adultery,
split-second timing and a precariously happy ending. After the great
success they enjoyed in his lifetime they were neglected after his
death, until the 1940s and 1950s, when productions by Jean-Louis
Barrault and the Comédie-Française led a revival of interest in his
works, at first in Paris and subsequently worldwide.Feydeau's personal
life was marred by depression, unsuccessful gambling and divorce. In
1919 his mental condition deteriorated sharply and he spent his final
two years in a sanatorium in Paris. He died there in 1921 at the age
of fifty-eight.
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