L'Hôtel du libre échange

[1] The Annales du théâtre et de la musique, noting that the laughter reverberated inside and out of the auditorium, said that a reviewer could only laugh and applaud rather than criticise.

[2] Another critic, predicting a long run, wrote that he and his colleagues would not be needed at the Nouveautés in their professional capacities for a year or so, but would know where to come if they wanted to laugh.

They check into a small, discreet Parisian hotel where they wish to spend the night, but complications arise and the couple never manage to exchange as much as a kiss.

He is visited by several people, including his neighbour Paillardin's wife, Marcelle, whom he persuades to spend the night with him in a hotel in town.

Pinglet arranges for his maid, Victoire, to follow Paillardin's nephew, Maxime, to philosophy school, as the boy is easily lost on his own.

Mathieu, who suffers from a speech impediment when it rains, announces that he intends to stay at the Pinglets' house for a month.

Act two opens in the Hôtel du Libre Échange, introducing the audience to the hotel owner, Bastien, and his assistant Boulot.

When Paillardin arrives back from the café, he is angry to see his belongings gone, and concludes that the supposed ghost is just a thief pretending to haunt the place.

He goes running through the hotel yelling about ghosts, and the daughters themselves are scared into hysterics by Paillardin unexpectedly appearing in their room.

Angelique is the next to arrive on stage, telling Pinglet in dramatic terms about how terrible a night she has had on a wild carriage journey through the countryside.

Police inspector Boucard arrives in Pinglet's office, and Angelique and Paillardin try to make him understand that they were not the people in l'Hôtel du Libre échange.

[5] After Feydeau died in 1921 his plays were neglected until the 1940s and 1950s; the first Paris revival of L'Hôtel du libre échange after his death was at the Théâtre Marigny in 1956 with Olivier Hussenot as Pinglet in a production by Jean-Pierre Grenier.

[7] The Comédie-Française admitted the work to its repertoire in 2017, in a production by Isabelle Nanty, starring Michel Vuillermoz as Pinglet.

Another translation made by John Mortimer under the title A Little Hotel on the Side, opened in London in 1984 at the National Theatre;[12] it was later produced on Broadway.

[14] Hotel Paradiso, based on Grenville's adaptation of the play, was released as a film in 1966, starring Gina Lollobrigida and Alec Guinness.