''Deburau'' is a 1918 French play by

Sacha Guitry Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry (; 21 February 188524 July 1957) was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and follow ...

that also played on Broadway in a translation by

Harley Granville-Barker Harley Granville-Barker (25 November 1877 – 31 August 1946) was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directi ...

at the

Belasco Theatre The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York Ci ...

in 1920–21 Mantle, Burns
The Best Plays of 1920-21 and the Year Book of the Drama in America
pp. 19-61 (1921) and at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1921.

Background

The play debuted on February 9, 1918, at the

Théâtre du Vaudeville The Théâtre du Vaudeville was a theatre company in Paris. It opened on 12 January 1792 on rue de Chartres. Its directors, Piis and Barré, mainly put on "petites pièces mêlées de couplets sur des airs connus", including vaudevilles. Af ...

Burns Mantle Robert Burns Mantle (December 23, 1873February 9, 1948) was an American theater critic. He founded the ''Best Plays'' annual publication in 1920.Chansky, Dorothy (2011)"Burns Mantle and the American Theatregoing Public" in ''Theatre History Stu ...

writes in ''The Best Plays of 1920-21'' that Guitry had to withdraw the play due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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

had made for

Charles B. Cochran Sir Charles Blake Cochran (25 September 1872 31 January 1951), generally known as C. B. Cochran, was an English theatrical manager and impresario. He produced some of the most successful musical revues, musicals and plays of the 1920s and 193 ...

. In America, after an out-of-town warmup in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

,(14 December 1920)
Hunger Unappeased Is Effect of New Comedy
''Washington Times''(16 December 1920)
Belasco Purpose To Honor Capital
'' Evening Star'' the play debuted at the

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." 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.(29 May 1921)
Expensive Deburau
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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 Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a musical ...

Robert Loraine Robert Bilcliffe Loraine (14 January 1876 – 23 December 1935) was a successful London and Broadway British stage actor, actor-manager, and soldier who later enjoyed a side career as a pioneer aviator. Born in New Brighton, his father was Henr ...

played Deburau.Wearing, J.P
The London Stage 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel
p. 123 (2d ed. 2014)

Revivals and adaptations

The 1924 silent film ''

The Lover of Camille ''The Lover of Camille'' is a 1924 American silent romantic drama film directed by Harry Beaumont, and starring Monte Blue. The film was based on the French play '' Deburau'' by Sacha Guitry, which was also adapted into a Broadway play by Ha ...

'' is an adaptation of the play.(30 November 1924)
Rialto - "The Lover of Camille"
'' Evening Star'' (

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

) The 1951 French film of the same name is also based on the play, with

both directing and reprising his lead role.Imaginaires urbains
p. 74 (2011) (in French) It has been revived a number of times in France, including in 1950 and 1980.Deburau
Les Archives Du Spectacle, Retrieved 23 December 2021

1920 Broadway cast

Lionel Atwill Lionel Alfred William Atwill (1 March 1885 – 22 April 1946) was an English stage and screen actor. He began his acting career at the Garrick Theatre. After coming to the U.S., he subsequently appeared in various Broadway plays and Hollywood f ...

Jean-Gaspard Deburau Jean-Gaspard Deburau (born Jan Kašpar Dvořák; 31 July 1796 – 17 June 1846), sometimes erroneously called Debureau, was a Bohemian-French Mime artist, mime. He performed from 1816 to the year of his death at the Théâtre des Funambule ...

Elsie Mackay Honorable Lady Elsie Mackay (August 21, 1893–13th March 1928) was a British actress, jockey, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter G. R. Hinchliffe in a single engined Stinson ...

as Marie Duplessis *

Bernard A. Reinold Bernard Adolph Reinold (1860 – March 19, 1940) was an American stage actor. He also used the stage name of Adolph Bernard. Reinhold was born in Manhattan. He ran away to sea at age 15 to avoid having to follow his father (Bernard Henry Reinhold, ...

as Monsieur Bertrand *

Hubert Druce Hubert Druce (May 20, 1870 – April 6, 1931) was an English actor and producer involved with English and American theater for over forty years. Druce was born as Benjamin Hubert Druce in Twickenham, Middlesex, England, in 1870. His stage debut ...

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 Isabel Leighton Bunker (July 17, 1899April 22, 1995) was an American writer and actress. She was the writer of six Broadway plays, and had an extensive journalism career throughout the 1930s and 40s. Early life Leighton was born as Isabella Kahn ...

as Honorine * Edmund Gurney as Clement *

Sidney Toler Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his p ...

as The "Barker" * Helen Reimer as The Money Taker * Lylia Burnand as The Unknown Lady *

St. Clair Bayfield St. Clair Bayfield (2 August 1875 – 19 May 1967) was an English stage actor, best known as the long-term companion and manager of amateur operatic soprano Florence Foster Jenkins. Life and career Bayfield was born John St. Clair Roberts in Ch ...

as A Journalist * Eden Gray as The Lady with the Lorgnette * Morgan Farley as Charles Deburau * John L. Shine as A Doctor(24 December 1920)
The Play
''

''(24 December 1920)
Great Performance By Lionel Atwill In "Deburau"
''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

References

External links

* {{IBDB show, 3003, Deburau
Photos at Museum of the City of New York
1918 plays