About the work
Vaudeville in three acts by Georges Feydeau, first performed on 2 March 1907 at the Théâtre des Nouveautés in Paris. Feydeau himself called it a vaudeville; in German- and English-speaking theatre it is now usually regarded as a textbook example of the classic farce of mistaken identity.
Plot
Suspecting her husband Victor Emmanuel Chandebise of infidelity, Raymonde and her friend Lucienne lure him with a forged love letter to the disreputable Hôtel Minet-Galant. There Chandebise is repeatedly mistaken for the hotel's drunken porter Poche, his exact double, and the ensuing confusion draws in Lucienne's jealous Spanish husband and half the Chandebise household.
Cultural significance
The premiere seemed set to rival the success of Feydeau's earlier hit La Dame de chez Maxim, but the run was cut short after 86 performances by the sudden death of its leading actor. The venerable Comédie-Française, which long treated Feydeau's farces as mere boulevard fare, did not stage the play until 1978.