Raymonde suspects her husband, Victor Emmanuel, of infidelity and she turns to her best friend, Lucienne, to help her gain proof. They concoct a play - based on a perfumed letter - to trap him at the Hotel Coq d'Or in Montretout. In true Feydeau fashion the plan misfires; the plot is complicated by confused identities, revolving beds, a great many doors and the fact that the stupid hotel porter, Poche, is the exact double of Victor Emmanuel. Period: the early 1900s.

This collection includes five long one-act plays: THE AWFUL TOOTH, BLASTED EVENT, DEAD WRONG, POTTY FAVORS, and SHE CAN'T BARE IT Master Belle Epoque farceur Georges Feydeau loosely based these brilliantly funny long one-acts on the failure of his own marriage. The plays, greatly admired in his time, were described by a prominent critic as "insane merriment, inextinguishable laughter." With DEAD WRONG, the first play in the collection, Feydeau launched a new genre: the marital farce, the hell of couples. And "like the very great comic writers," another critic noted, Feydeau "knows how to...