French Without Tears
French Without Tears is a comic play written by a 25-year-old Terence Rattigan in 1936.
Setting
It takes place in a cram school for adults needing to acquire French for business reasons. Scattered throughout are Franglais phrases and schoolboy misunderstandings of the French language.
The play was inspired by a 1933 visit to a village called Marxzell in the Black Forest, where young English gentlemen went to cram German.
Reception
The play was a success on its London debut, establishing Rattigan as a dramatist. Critics thought it "gay, witty, thoroughly contemporary... with a touch of lovable truth behind all its satire."[1]
It ran for over 1,000 performances in London, and over 100 in New York.[2] It also established Rex Harrison as a major star.
Original production
The play, directed by Harold French, opened on 6 November 1936 at the Criterion Theatre, London, with the following cast:[3]
- Alan Howard - Rex Harrison
- Brian Curtis - Guy Middleton
- Commander Bill Rogers - Roland Culver
- Diana Lake - Kay Hammond
- Jacqueline Maingot - Jessica Tandy
- Kenneth Lake - Trevor Howard
- Kit Neilan - Robert Flemyng
- Lord Heybrook - William Dear
- Marianne/t/o Jacqueline Maingot - Yvonne Andre
- Monsieur Maingot - Percy Walsh
Adaptations
A film version, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Ray Milland, was released in 1940.[4] In 1960 Rattigan himself refashioned the work as the musical Joie de Vivre but it was not a success.[5]
A television production was featured in the Saturday Playhouse TV series on 7 June 1958, with Denholm Elliott, Elvi Hale, Colin Broadley, Nicholas Parsons, and Andrew Irvine[6] and another in the BBC's Play of the Month series on 16 May 1976, starring Nigel Havers, Anthony Andrews, and David Robb.[7]
References
- ^ "French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan, Kay Hammond & Roland Culver". vam.ac.uk.
- ^ "Terence Rattigan". terencerattigan.co.uk.
- ^ "Production of French Without Tears - Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
- ^ "French without Tears". BFI.
- ^ Wright, Adrian (2012). West End Broadway : the Golden Age of American musical in London. Woodbridge, England: Boydell & Brewer. p. 163. ISBN 9781843837916.
- ^ Saturday Playhouse; Episode 12: French Without Tears (7 June 1958), IMDb.com. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ Play of the Month; French Without Tears (16 May 1976), bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
External links
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