Un fil à la patte
Un fil à la patte (Tied by the leg) is a three-act farce by Georges Feydeau. It was first performed in Paris in 1894 and ran for 129 performances. The play has been revived frequently in France, and has been staged in translations in the US and Britain. The play depicts the frantic efforts of a young man-about-town to break his ties to his mistress as he prepares to marry into the aristocracy. Background and first production By the mid-1890s Georges Feydeau had established himself as the leading writer of French farce of his generation. At a time when a run of 100 performances was regarded in Parisian theatres as a success, Feydeau had enjoyed runs of 434 for Champignol malgré lui (1892) and 371 for L'Hôtel du libre échange (1894). Both those plays had been written in collaboration with Maurice Desvallières. Un fil à la patte opened at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal on 9 January 1894, and ran for 129 performances. The fil or thread of the title is that which metaphorically ties Bois-d'Enghien to Lucette Gauthier, a music-hall star. Original cast Bouzin – Saint-Germain General Irrigua – M Milher Bois-d'Enghien – Perrée Raimond Lantery – M Luguet Chenneviette