It has been such an interesting week.

The annual arts festival Les Nuits de la Terrasse et del Catet was on this week and one of the highlights for us was a production of the above Shakespearean play , in French, in the Domain d’Asties.
We had the techies staying with us , the lighting man, the sound man, the wardrobe mistress and the stage manager.
They were from what seems to be a very successful Swiss theatrical company, Theatre Vidy-Lausanne and were part of the touring company.
They have bee touring La Comedie for all of this year and they will take off again for another tour next year.
They have been everywhere , in France and Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
They have had a very successful run in Paris (I found reviews on the internet)
and interestingly the director is an Englishman, Dan Jemmet , who it seems, like Peter Brooke, fled to France for the better theatrical opportunities here.

Anyway they invited us to the production on Wednesday night and it was superb.
This is not the greatest of William S’s plays. He wrote it very young and it is a one joke comedy with an almost Gilbertian plot of twins who don’t know of each others existence.Not only that but two sets of twins.
We saw an extremely good production on the BBC ages ago but that had the advantage of having Judy Dench starring and I would happily pay to have her read the shipping forcast.
So we headed off, in some fear, on Wednesday, a bit unknown this, Shakespeare in French.
Well it was a triumph.

The set was four portaloos into and out of the cast disappeared with amazing rapidity, the cast was reduced to five acrobatic actors , who could with a ruffle of their hair transform themselves , there were two beer dispensers on stage which the cast tried valiantly to empty during the production. (the techies informed us at breakfast that it was, however, non-alcoholic.)
Great fun was had by all.
It was a sort of Feydeau, meets Mack Sennet, meets Monty Python production which was extremely true to the original but with loads of Eighties disco music and lighting and the audience just adored it.
The cast got a standing ovation at the end and were called back again and again for their bows.

It was terrific to be able to tell our lads (they are now all firm friends) how much we loved it- as for it being in French ? I don’t think either of us missed a joke.

The following night the lighting mans wife and children and mother-in-law arrived chez nous and so we fed them all a pre-production feast of Irish and Languedocean delicacies* and then, after the techies had departed to work, had a (pre-curfew) sing song with the Mamans and the Enfants of French Nursery Rhymes, and their English equivalents , au terrace until, goodness at least 10 30.

It is quite sad to see them all depart today.

* Menu for Irish Languedoc Repas:

La Tarte des Tomates et Chevre avec Basilic et Huile d’Olive.

La Glace au Thé et Whiskey sur un Flapjack des Avoines