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Thieves' Carnival
Thieves' Carnival
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Author: Jean Anouilh Translated by: Lucienne Hill Publisher: Samuel French (cover image may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 66 Pub. Date: 1980 ISBN-10: 0573616523 ISBN-13: 9780573616525 Cast Size: 5 female, 15 male
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About
the Play:
Thieves' Carnival is a full-length comedy by Jean
Anouilh, translated by Lucienne Hill. The play focuses on
a master thief and his two young apprentices who get themselves
invited to stay at a wealthy family's summer estate. The thieves try
to rob the family of their valuables and their nieces through
deception and wit. Especially
recommended for school and contest use.
Thieves' Carnival deals with a bumbling trio of crooks
attempting to ply their trade in this excellent lark loaded with
humorous whims, romance, and masquerades. The scene is a palatial
home where two attractive young girls reside. The home is invaded by
three affectionate thieves, on the one hand, and by a country bumpkin
on the other. A lovely romance blooms instantly between one of the
girls and the youngest thief. Being a very honest fellow, he cannot
in good conscience accept her love, and instead turns with vengeance
toward his job. But she is swifter in her wiles than he is in his? An
example of the frivolous boulevardier school of writing, Thieves' Carnival
harks back in form and style to the tradition of the commedia dell'
arte, of Moliere and of Marivaux.
Thieves' Carnival (Le bal des voleurs) was written in
1932 when Jean Anouilh was only 22 years old. The Lucienne
Hill translation of this play premiered in 1951 at Birmingham
Repertory Theatre in Birmingham, England. Produced in 1955 at Cherry
Lane Theatre in New York, it is the most successful of Jean
Anouilh's works in the US, and is regularly performed and studied
around the world.
Cast: 5 female, 15 male
What people say:
"Irrepressible humor, rueful
wisdom … Immensely entertaining." — Herald Tribune
"A witty masquerade … Gay,
ironic … original, impertinent, and civilized." — The
New York Times
About the Playwright:
Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) is regarded as one of France's
best-known dramatists. After completing his early schooling, Anouilh
studied law for a short time at the Sorbonne, and then worked as a
copywriter at Publicité Damour. Though his career spanned five
decades, he is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, a
version of Sophocles' classical drama that was seen as a thinly
disguised attack on the Nazis and on the Vichy government. One of
France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's
work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral
compromise.
Lucienne Hill (1923-2012) became well-known for her for her
translations of French dramatist Jean Anouilh. After a brief
career as an actress of stage and screen, she went on to translate
over 30 plays.
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