About the Play:

Rare book, very limited quantities available

The Pregnant Pause or Love's Labor Lost is a full-length farce comedy by Georges Feydeau, translated by Norman R. Shapiro. A brilliant tableau of conjugal chaos by the master of the genre.

Hector Ennepeque, Feydeau's semi-autobiographical main character, waits for his wife Léonie to give birth. The first-time father to be, is in extended labour and protracted comic convulsions over his wife's imminent delivery. Before the baby's arrival, this hilarious farce gives birth to multiple comic harangues all aimed a the helpless henpecked husband. When Hector tries to rebound from the recriminations of his aristocratic in-laws, he is swatted aside by a domineering midwife who takes charge of everything.

The Pregnant Pause or Love's Labor Lost is based on the Georges Feydeau stage farce Léonie est en avance ou le mal joli, which opened to great success in 1911.

Cast: 4 women, 2 men

What people say:

"Shaprio writes well about the edge of madness that Feydeau's characters are always so perilously skirting ... His versions read easily. It is a great achievement...." — Times Literary Supplement

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.

Norman R. Shapiro is professor of Romance languages and literature at Wesleyan University and a renowned translator of French plays, poetry, and literature. He has won numerous awards and recognitions over the years and is a member of the Academy of American Poets.