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Hotel Paradiso

The Barn Theatre, Southwick Community Centre

May 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 1970

Hotel Paradiso

by Georges Feydeau
Directed by Nikki Le Roy


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“Great stuff”

– Brighton & Hove Gazette –

Cast

Ralph Dawes – Boniface

Valerie Bingham – Angelique

Jean Porter – Marcelle

Douglas Tucker – Cot

Anthony Deasey – Maxime

Betty Dawes – Victoire

Brian Moulton – Martin

Tom O’Donovan – 1st Porter

Ian Horton-Stephens – 2nd Porter

Stephen Moulton – A Porter

Barbara Moulton – Violette

Rosalind Tripp – Margueritte

Angela Mehr – Parquerette

Julie Morgan – Pervenche

David Creedon – Anniello

Neil Shepherd – Georges

Bess Blagden – A Lady

Nikki Le Roy – A Duke

Michael Padley – Tabu

Tom Atkinson – Police Inspector Bouchard

Michael Radcliffe – Policeman

Norman Hutchins – Policeman

 

Production Crew

Stage ManagerBrian Moulton

Assistant Stage ManagerStephen Moulton

Assistant Stage ManagerSue Brown

WardrobeCarol Brand

Sound EffectsTerry Mase

PropertiesMargaret Davy

PropertiesBarbara Moulton

Production SecretaryFrances Moulton

LightingFrank Hurrell

DesignerTony Morrison

DesignerRalph Dawes

Publicity DesignerGordon Kelsey

Programme Note #1: Hotel Paradiso

Programme note: “The farces of Feydeau are as implacable and forthright in intention as a child with a peashooter. They concern the comic horrors that beset ordinary men and women in their determined pursuit of their follies and foibles.

The comic horrors of this farce shook London in a storm of hilarious laughter, and when ‘ the curtain came down for the last time, the whole, huge, crowded house broke in a frenzied excitement. There were cheers, there were shouts, there was jubilation and triumph. ‘So Harold Hobson in the Sunday Times described the scene.

In The Times, the Dramatic Critic, revealing some of the details of the plot gave a strong indication of the kind of comic horrors that beset the characters in Hotel Paradiso. ‘The central situation is a disreputable Paris hotel where all but one of the first act’s characters meet. The down-trodden husband is offering consolation to the dissatisfied wife of his best friend. His friend has been sent by the sanitary authorities to investigate ghostly noises in the haunted room suggestive of a defective water tank. A country innocent, an acquaintance of both families, is trying to find cheap accommodation for a large family of daughters. A studious youth whose subject is Spinoza on Passion, arrives with the parlour maid, who shares his interest in the subject. The number of rooms and doors are barely equal to the strain of the complications that follow.’

Altogether it is an hilarious farce, fun to read and funnier to act.”