I’ve selected, translated, and annotated a choice selection of plays by Alphonse Allais for this book. First performed in the cabarets and theaters of Paris in the rollicking 1890s, these plays include satire, absurdism, he-she sketches, a burlesque operetta, even a play for dogs. You’ll find ten monologues, three one-act plays, and twelve shorter skits drawn from Allais’s columns for Le Journal, Le Chat Noir, and other papers. It also includes my introduction and notes, a frontispiece I drew, and photos from the original production of The Miserable Wretch and the Good Genie in 1899. It’s 124 pages, and it’s available from Black Scat Books. It’s proto-Dada at its most delicious!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Norman Conquest // Sep 15, 2014 at 10:45 am
Bravo! Encore!
2 Win // Sep 15, 2014 at 10:27 pm
When do you sleep???
3 Doug // Sep 16, 2014 at 1:57 pm
I took on a bit too much these past few months. I’m penciling some sleep into my schedule now.
4 Win // Sep 16, 2014 at 7:37 pm
Well, I for one – and I’m sure there are many others who feel similarly – am both grateful for the work it must have taken to provide the world with so many entertaining and stimulating gifts, and inspired by your talent, discipline and, dare I say, genius. I think the ghost of Alphonse Allais, if he exists, must be raising a toast to you with one of his exotic cocktails. Without your devotion, these works of his would probably have faced an indefinite wait to see the light of day in our language. Bravo again.
5 Doug // Sep 17, 2014 at 4:31 pm
Why, thank you.