Monsieur chasse!

A married man disguises his absences conducting an extramarital affair in Paris as shooting trips in the country, but an evening's chaotic events expose his deception.

[1] After a period of studying the works of the earlier comic masters of the 19th century he wrote two new plays in 1892: Monsieur chasse!

Duchotel departs, with his guns and luggage, and Moricet hints to Léontine that there may be an ulterior motive for her husband's regular absences.

He knows that her most ardent adorer is an individual called Zizi, and has taken steps for catching them together in flagrante at the Paris apartment in which they meet.

As the venue for his rendezvous with Léontine, Moricet has rented furnished rooms previously occupied by a glamorous cocotte, Urbaine des Voitures, who has just been expelled by the concierge, Madame Latour du Nord.

Léontine appears, and on seeing her husband hides her face with a blanket; Duchotel does not recognise her, and takes himself off without suspecting anything.

Hastily donning a pair of trousers placed on a chair, he rushes to the door and downstairs, while the pursuing policemen, on discovering Moricet trouserless, arrest and haul him off.

She refuses, until Gontran quietly suggests she should forgive her husband in memory of the lady he saw at 40 rue d'Athènes the night before.

In Le Figaro, Henry Fouquier wrote: Les Annales du théâtre et de la musique said: Feydeau's plays went through a period of neglect after his death in 1921, and it was not until the 1940s that interest in them was rekindled.

[5] Monsieur chasse was one of the first to be revived, in a production in 1944 by Jean Darcante at Le Palace, Paris, with Pierre Larquey and Simone Renant as the Duchotels.

Directors have included Darcante; Robert Dhéry; the author's grandson Alain Feydeau; Denise Filiatrault; Basil Langton; Yves Pignot and Georges Vitaly.

[7] An early English adaptation, The Sportsman, by William Lestocq was heavily edited to meet the requirements of Victorian theatregoers in London.

[9] Under the title 13 rue de l'amour the piece played in London in 1976 and New York in 1978, starring Louis Jourdan in both productions.