About the Play:

Hotel Paradiso is a full-length comedy by Georges Feydeau with Maurice Desvallieres, translated by Peter Glenville. One wife, two husbands, a nephew, and the perky maid, all at this 'by the hour' hotel, and consummation of the affair is, to say the least, severely compromised (not the least by a police raid). Slamming doors, trysts and secret liaisons abound when no one is whom they appear to be in this hilarious, head-spinning bedroom comedy.

Hotel Paradiso is a mad French bedroom farce that finds an assortment of refined people stealing through the halls and rooms of a cheap Paris hotel intent on secret romantic liaisons. There is the neglectful husband Henri with his beautiful but ignored wife Marcelle, and their neighbours, the respectable Monsieur Boniface with his domineering wife. Henri plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso; but Boniface arrives with Marcelle. There are some hilarious characters and many farcical situations throughout Hotel Paradiso; a tottering octogenarian and a chorus girl; an inexperienced youth on his first flight of fancy with Boniface's maid; a housing inspector investigating ghosts; a widower with his four innocent daughters in tow, and a host of others. Hilarious chaos ensues as they all try to avoid embarrassing confrontations. The chaos finally climaxes in a police raid with devastating consequences.

Hotel Paradiso is based on the Georges Feydeau stage farce L'Hotel du Libre Echange, which opened in 1894 in Paris, where it had an immediate nine-month run. The English translation premiered in 1956 at the Winter Garden Theatre in the West End of London and in 1957 at Henry Miller's Theatre on Broadway, with Peter Glenville as director and Alec Guinness as star – roles both would repeat in the film version. The play has been performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 8 female, 13 male, extras

What people say:

"One of the funniest comedies since the silent movies." — New York Daily News

"Mr. Glenville's conception of this rumpus is riotous ... bold, reckless and funny." — The New York Times

About the Playwright:

Georges Feydeau (1862-1921) was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his many lively farces, one of the favourites of which is Hotel Paradiso. He wrote over sixty plays and was a forerunner of absurdist theatre.

Maurice Desvallières (1857-1926) was a French writer who often collaborated with Georges Feydeau.

Peter Glenville (1913-1996) was an English film and stage actor and director who won accolades for his staging of plays in the West End of London as well as on Broadway.