Word: hochepaix
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...explain to his wife, Clarisse (Nancy Cotton), that it is indecent for their son to see her wearing only her slip. She doesn't understand what is wrong with this or, for that matter, with her being seen in her nightgown by household servants, peeping-tom neighbors, and even Hochepaix, the mayor of a nearby town. The play's central conflict is caused when Clarisse's ingenuous and disputable logic meets up with Ventroux's "appearances are everything" outlook...
...while examining the material of his trousers, she explains. "Well, what did you expect me to do? I couldn't very well ask him to take his trousers off--a man I'd only just met." She is similarly naive about walking around in front of Hochepaix, a political enemy of her husband, is her nightgown and repeating all the terrible things her husband said about him before he arrived...
...Bent overplays Hochepaix, greatly underestimating the audience's ability to understand far from subtle shades of meaning. It is enough to be told that Hochepaix waged a campaign against Ventroux in which he called Ventroux names such as "traitor," "rotten egg," "stool pigeon," and "decaying garbage." Bent's winking and gesturing to the audience whenever he says something sarcastic is a bit extraneous...
WHILE MUCH OF THE HUMOR in Feydeau's work comes from the bizarre nature of the characters and situations, the force of the puns seems to have been lost in this translation by Robert Chapman, professor of English Literature. Hochepaix, for instance, tries to explain the pronunciation of the last syllable of his name in this witty exchange: "Pay. Not Pee. P-A-I-X." To which Ventroux replies, smugly. "Oh, I beg your pardon. Pay, not Pee. Unintentional error, of course." Similarly, Clarisse doesn't understand why Ventroux is upset that Hochepaix called him a "pretty pair of sights...
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