Topaze (play)

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Topaze is a play in four acts by Marcel Pagnol from 1928. In the comedy, Pagnol deals with the subject of corruption and describes the customs of the “better” society. The title of the piece is based on a slip of the tongue from Pagnol's friend Jacques Théry, who brought the title into conversation.

action

Topaze is a teacher at the Muche boarding school. He's a little naive and too honest for those around him. The young teacher Ernestine, daughter of the director Muche, for example, lets him correct her work. Eventually he got caught up in the fraudulent business of the city councilor Régis Castel-Bénac and his lover Suzy Courtois, whose nephews he was tutoring.

Performances

The dress rehearsal of the piece took place on October 10, 1928 in the "Variétés" theater. After the curtain had fallen at the end of the third act and the enthusiastic friends and critics visited the author Marcel Pagnol with Max Maurey, Maurey said the following: “Ah! Here is our author at last! Dear friend, Lefaur, Pauley, Jeanne Provost, Larquey, everyone was wonderful! I'll tell you one thing, so far we've won the game. "

The premiere took place the next day and was a complete success. The play was described by the critics as a character comedy of the first order. For Pagnol it meant the international breakthrough as a playwright.

Publications

Film adaptations

  • 1936: Topaze (Marcel Pagnol)
  • 1951: Topaze (Marcel Pagnol)
  • 1961: Mr. Topaze ( Peter Sellers )

Individual evidence

  1. Jasmin Fischer: Foreword , p. 5, in: Marcel Pagnol: Topaze , MONS Verlag, October 2017, 260 p. ISBN 978-3-946368-38-0
  2. Jasmin Fischer: Afterword , p. 236, in: Marcel Pagnol: Topaze , MONS Verlag, October 2017, 260 p. ISBN 978-3-946368-38-0
  3. Tobias Bruns: Review of Topaze . Philosophers' Strike , 2017
  4. Marcel Pagnol: Confidences . Editions de Fallois, 2016, 192 pp. ISBN 9782877065269