Cast

Synopsis

An Absolute Turkey (Le Dindon) is a dizzying whirl of intrigues, betrayals, mistakes and misunderstandings that reaches the heights of farcical lunacy and leaves the audience breathless with laughter.

Lucienne is happily married to Vatelin but is ardently pursued by inveterate womaniser Pontagnac and her long-time admirer Redillon. She virtuously resists their attempts at seduction, saying she knows her husband is faithful, but if he were to stray like other men, she would immediately revenge herself by taking a lover. Gleefully Pontagnac reveals that Vatelin is to meet his mistress Mitzi at the Hotel Ultimus that very night.

Lucienne, Pontagnac and Redillon set off for the hotel to catch Vatelin in the act, but the hotel muddles the room bookings and they are drawn into a maelstrom of confusion with a lady of the town, a precocious page boy, Pontagnac’s wife, Mitzi’s husband and a lecherous army doctor and his deaf wife.

Who will be caught with their trousers down? Will the scheming lovers escape scot-free? Will virtue triumph over lust? And who will be the turkey at the feast? See An Absolute Turkey and find out.

Directors Notes

Welcome to the world of Georges Feydeau, the master of farce. The original title of An Absolute Turkey is Le Dindon – which in French slang means “the fall guy” or “the dupe”. The play has all the standard ingredients of a Feydeau farce: respectable members of the wealthy middle class living in Paris whose desires propel them into a complex web of plans and intrigues that inevitably go wrong. Mistakes, misunderstandings and unlikely coincidences create a dizzying whirl of farcical lunacy as the main characters frantically improvise to escape from the situations they have fallen into.

I first encountered Feydeau many years ago when I played a young student pursued by an ardent parlourmaid in Hotel Paradiso at Bradford Playhouse. It was enormous fun but also a revelation of consummate stage craft. I was impressed by the careful structure, the complex plotting, the clockwork precision with which each element comes into play and interacts with what is already there. (The two leads were Donald Clough and Ron Pearson. Those who knew those brilliant comic actors will understand why the production was so enjoyable and a lesson in craft.) Since then, I have always wanted to direct a Feydeau and I’m delighted to have been given the chance.

Feydeau is much more than the supreme technician. His characters are recognisable and always founded in reality. To quote the author himself “you have to place ordinary people in a dramatic situation and then observe them from a comic angle, but they must never be allowed to say or do anything which is not strictly demanded, first by their character and secondly by the plot”. The result is richly comic but also a wry commentary on human frailties and imperfections.

All Feydeau comedies follow a classic three act structure in three locations, with the middle act always a hotel as it provides the maximum opportunity for unlikely meetings. Rather than three box sets, we have opted for a more open flexible staging which frees the actors and assists the comedy.Le Dindon was first staged in 1896 at the Palais Royale where it ran for an almost unheard of 238 performances. There have been several English adaptations over the years, sometimes under the alternative title of Sauce for the Goose. This version by Sir Peter Hall and Nicky Frei is the most recent dating from 1994.