The Italian Straw Hat (play)

''The Italian Straw Hat'' (''Un chapeau de paille d'Italie'') is a five-act comedy by Eugène Labiche. It premiered at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on 14 August 1851. It has been adapted for the cinema in French, English, German, Czech and Russian, and as a musical play in English and Italian versions. The piece remains regularly staged in France, where it entered the repertoire of the Comédie-Française in Paris and of theatres in other French cities.

Plot

The play is set in Paris in the middle of the 19th century, on the morning of the day on which Fadinard, a well-to-do bachelor, is to marry Hélène Nonancourt, daughter of a suburban market-gardener. Hélène, together with her cantankerous father and a fleet of eight cabs full of wedding guests, is on her way. Fadinard has ridden ahead to make final arrangements. On the way, his horse has eaten a straw hat hung on a bush. The hat belonged to Anaïs, an ex-girlfriend of Fadinard's, who has been dallying behind the bush with her lover, Émile. She and Émile have followed Fadinard to his house, and they insist on a replacement hat, explaining that Anaïs's husband is obsessively jealous and would demand to know the circumstances in which she lost her original hat.

Just as Fadinard rushes out in search of a replacement, Hélène and the wedding-party arrive. Assuming that he is on his way to the ceremony, they get back into their cabs and follow him. Fadinard discovers that finding an identical hat is not as easy as he imagined. His search first takes him to a milliner (Clara), then to an aristocrat (la baronne de Champigny), and then to a bachelor (Achille de Rosalba); on each occasion, the wedding party arrives hot on his heels. The chase ends outside Fadinard's house when one of the wedding-guests, his old uncle, Vézinet, produces his present, an Italian straw hat identical to the one eaten by the horse: the wedding is saved and the play ends in general celebration.

Original cast

*Fadinard – Pierre-Alfred Ravel
*Nonancourt – Paul Grassot ( fr)
*Beauperthuis – Lhéritier ( fr)
*Vezinet – Amant ( fr)
*Tardiveau – Jean-François Kalekaire ( fr)
*Bobin – Joseph Schey ( fr)
*Émile Tavernier – Valaire
*Félix – Augustin
*Achille de Rosalba – Jules Lacourière ( fr)

*A corporal – Floridor
*A domestic servant – Andrieux
*Hélène – Marie-Mathilde Chauvière
*Anaïs – Mme. Berger
*La baronne de Champigny – Pauline
*Clara – Cécile Azimont ( fr)
*Virginie – Mlle. Gallois
*A chambermaid – Mlle. Chollet

::Source: Les archives du spectacle.

Revivals and adaptations

French productions

In the 80 years after its creation there were more than 100 productions of the play throughout France."An Italian Straw Hat"
''Drama Online''. Retrieved 8 September 2018 It was taken into the repertoire of the Comédie-Française in 1938, under the direction of Gaston Baty,"Un chapeau de paille d'Italie"
Les archives du spectacle. Retrieved, 7 September2018 and has remained there ever since. It has been revived by other companies in Paris and other French cities in more than 30 new productions, and has been presented several times in every decade from the 1930s onwards.

British productions

The first version in English was given under the title ''A Leghorn Bonnet'', at the Adelphi Theatre in 1852. That adaptation, by John Oxenford, retained Paris as the setting. It closed after 11 performances, and the play became more familiar to London audiences in the original French version, which Ravel and his company played at the St James's Theatre in 1867, and again in 1871.

In 1873 W. S. Gilbert adapted the original as ''The Wedding March''. He wrote his version under the pen name of "F.Latour Tomline", moving the action to London and suppressing the adulterous aspect of the original. That version was a box-office success, but Gilbert's later adaptation as a musical play, ''Haste to the Wedding'' (1892), with music by George Grossmith, achieved only a short run.

An English translation by Thomas Walton was presented by the Old Vic company in 1952 with Laurence Payne as Fadinard. A translation by Lynn and Theodore Hoffman entitled ''An Italian Straw Hat'' was staged by the Edinburgh Gateway Company in 1962. A London West End production in 1987 starred Tom Conti; the adaptation by Ray Cooney followed the original plot but broadened the comedy somewhat.

North American productions

An American adaptation, titled ''The Straw Hat'' was given in New York by the American Laboratory Theatre company in 1926. The Parisian setting was retained, but the characters were given pseudo-French names like "Baroness Crème de la Crème" and "Gillette Rapide". A later American adaptation, ''Horse Eats Hat'' by Edwin Denby and Orson Welles, was presented at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in 1936, with Joseph Cotten in the lead role. The Parisian setting was dropped, and the characters had English names such as "Entwistle" and "Mugglethorpe". The Stratford Festival staged a production in 1971 starring Robin Gammell, Tony Van Bridge and Dinah Christie. It ran for 36 performances during the Festival's summer season.

Film and broadcasts

René Clair directed a silent film of the play in 1927, with Albert Préjean as Fadinard. A German film adaptation, '' Der Florentiner Hut'', was directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner in 1939, and starred Heinz Rühmann. Another French version followed in 1941, starring Fernandel as Fadinard. It was also made as a French TV movie directed by François Goetghebeur in 2016.
A Russian film was made in 1974, titled ''The Straw Hat'' (''Соломенная шляпка''), directed by Leonid Kvinikhidze and starring Andrei Mironov.

The BBC
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