Deburau

{{Short description|Play}} {{Infobox play | name = Deburau | image = File:Elsie Mackay in Deburau - Vanity Fair.jpg | image_size = | caption = Elsie Mackay as Marie Duplessis in 1920 Broadway production | writer = Sacha Guitry | genre = | setting = | subject = | premiere = February 9, 1918 Théâtre du Vaudeville, Paris<br>December 23, 1920 Belasco Theatre, New York<br>November 11, 1921 Ambassadors Theatre, London | place = | orig_lang = French }}<nowiki> </nowiki>'''''Deburau''''' is a 1918 French play by Sacha Guitry that also played on Broadway in a translation by Harley Granville-Barker at the Belasco Theatre in 1920–21<Ref name="mantle">Mantle, Burns. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GrlEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA19 The Best Plays of 1920-21 and the Year Book of the Drama in America], pp. 19-61 (1921)</ref> and at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1921.

==Background== The play debuted on February 9, 1918, at the Théâtre du Vaudeville. Burns Mantle writes in ''The Best Plays of 1920-21'' that Guitry had to withdraw the play due to World War I shells starting to drop within blocks of the theatre, but that the play had already been such a success that there was "lively bidding" for the American rights to a translated version that Harley Granville-Barker had made for Charles B. Cochran.<Ref name="mantle"/>

In America, after an out-of-town warmup in Washington,<ref name="shubert">(14 December 1920). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1920-12-14/ed-1/seq-12/ Hunger Unappeased Is Effect of New Comedy], ''Washington Times''</ref><ref name="dc2">(16 December 1920). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1920-12-16/ed-1/seq-29/ Belasco Purpose To Honor Capital], ''Evening Star''</ref> the play debuted at the Belasco Theatre on December 23, 1920. Mantle writes that it "immediately took its place, not only as one of the fine plays of this particular season, but as one of the most impressively and beautifully staged plays the American stage has ever known."<Ref name="mantle"/> Belasco, however, decided not to take the play on the road due to the cost of doing so, also reporting that the entire production in New York was also going to be a loss. The New York production required actors and staff totaling 126 (plus two children) to be staged.<ref name="expensive">(29 May 1921). [https://www.nytimes.com/1921/05/29/archives/expensive-deburau.html?searchResultPosition=1 Expensive Deburau], ''The New York Times''</ref>

In London, Granville-Barker's translation debuted at the Ambassadors Theatre on November 3, 1921, and played through November 26 (28 perf.) It was the stage debut for Ivor Novello. Robert Loraine played Deburau.<ref name="london">Wearing, J.P. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5vFEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 The London Stage 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel], p. 123 (2d ed. 2014)</ref>

==Revivals and adaptations== The 1924 silent film ''The Lover of Camille'' is an adaptation of the play.<ref name="1924one">(30 November 1924). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1924-11-30/ed-1/seq-81/ Rialto - "The Lover of Camille"], ''Evening Star'' (Washington, D.C.)</ref> The 1951 French film of the same name is also based on the play, with Sacha Guitry both directing and reprising his lead role.<ref name="1951french">[https://books.google.com/books?id=JpsPacAoytoC&pg=PA74 Imaginaires urbains], p. 74 (2011) (in French)</ref>

It has been revived a number of times in France, including in 1950 and 1980.<ref name="revives">[https://www.lesarchivesduspectacle.net/?IDX_Oeuvre=1211 Deburau],Les Archives Du Spectacle, Retrieved 23 December 2021</ref>

==1920 Broadway cast== * Lionel Atwill as Jean-Gaspard Deburau * Elsie Mackay as Marie Duplessis * Bernard A. Reinold as Monsieur Bertrand * Hubert Druce as Robilard * Joseph Herbert as Laurent * Rowland Buckstohe as Laplace * Margot Kelly as Justine * Pauline Merriam as Madame Robard * Marie Bryar as Clara * Isabel Leighton as Honorine * Edmund Gurney as Clement * Sidney Toler as The "Barker" * Helen Reimer as The Money Taker * Lylia Burnand as The Unknown Lady * St. Clair Bayfield as A Journalist * Eden Gray as The Lady with the Lorgnette * Morgan Farley as Charles Deburau * John L. Shine as A Doctor<ref name="nytimesreview">(24 December 1920). [https://www.nytimes.com/1920/12/24/archives/the-play-at-the-belasco-theatre.html The Play], ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="tribrev">(24 December 1920). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1920-12-24/ed-1/seq-6/ Great Performance By Lionel Atwill In "Deburau"], ''New York Tribune''</ref>

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Deburau (play)}} * {{IBDB show|3003|Deburau}} * [https://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWL82WCTX&SMLS=1&RW=957&RH=721 Photos at Museum of the City of New York]

Category:1918 plays Category:Plays by Sacha Guitry