Dinner with the Family

First edition in English. Crown 8vo. Red cloth, lettered in silver to spine. Jacket design by Harry More-Gordon.

Faint foxing to top edge, a hint of soiling to rear dustwrapper panel, with a shallow chip to crown of lightly sunned spine, else Fine.

Translated from the French by Edward Owen Marsh.

Premiered on 10th December 1957 at the New Theatre, St. Martin's Lane, London, after an Oxford Playhouse try-out. It was directed by Frank Hauser, and starred John Justin, Jill Bennett, Alan MacNaughtan, Lally Bowers, and Ian Hendry. Originally staged under the title Le Rendez-vous de Senlis, at the Théâtre de l'Atelier on 30 January 1941, in a production directed by André Barsacq. That starred Michel Vitold, Denise Bosc, Jean Dasté, Madeleine Geoffroy, Georges Rollin, and Monelle Valentin.

A man's ultimately fruitless attempt to impress the girl he loves by hiring actors to portray his imaginary wealthy parents. Forming part of Anouilh's pièces roses or "pink plays", and additionally comprising Le Bal des voleurs [Carnival of Thieves] (1938), and Léocadia [Time Remembered] (1940), the focus of these urbane comedies is on fantasy substituting reality. A prolific French dramatist whose career spanned five decades, Anouilh is best remembered today for his 1944 adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama Antigone, viewed as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government.