description L'Hôtel du libre échange Overview
L'Hôtel du libre échange is a French vaudeville farce written by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières in 1894. The plot is set in a Parisian hotel where multiple couples attempt to conduct secret, illicit rendezvous simultaneously. The structure relies on the physical movement of characters between identical, adjacent hotel rooms, resulting in a continuous sequence of near-discoveries and escalating situational chaos.
help L'Hôtel du libre échange FAQ
Who co-wrote L'Hôtel du libre échange with Georges Feydeau?
Maurice Desvallières co-wrote the play with Feydeau, and it premiered in 1894 as one of Feydeau's earlier full-length farces. Desvallières was Feydeau's frequent collaborator; they also wrote together on works like La Dame de chez Maxim before Feydeau moved toward solo authorship.
What happens in the plot of L'Hôtel du libre échange?
The play is set in a hotel where multiple couples arrive independently for secret trysts, and their interlocking rendezvous collide in escalating confusion. The structure is classic Feydeau: each attempt at concealment inadvertently exposes another character, producing a cascade of mistaken identities and near-misses.
How does L'Hôtel du libre échange compare to Feydeau's more famous farces like Le Dindon?
Both are full-length farces from Feydeau's most productive period, but L'Hôtel du libre échange (1894) predates Le Dindon (1896) and is sometimes seen as a stepping-stone toward his more structurally complex later works. It shares the single-setting, machine-like plotting of his mature style but with fewer moving parts.
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