The Play's The Thing

By Ferenc Molnar, adapted from the Hungarian by P.G. Wodehouse

1926

Setting: A castle on the Italian Riviera on a Saturday in summer, 1926.

Synopsis:

To celebrate the completion of their latest operetta, successful writing duo Turai and Mansky have taken their protégé, the young composer Albert Adam, on a vacation to the Italian Riviera. Turai plans that they will surprise Ilona Szabo, the star of the operetta and Adam's fiancée, who is staying at the same castle.

Unfortunately, when they arrive at the door to her suite with a bottle of champagne, the three are shocked to overhear Ilona in a passionate conversation with the middle-aged actor Almady. Heartbroken and furious, Adam resolves to break off his engagement to Ilona and to destroy all the music for the operetta, to the alarm of Turai and Mansky. The two manage to get Adam to bed, and discuss how they can possibly save their production. Despite Mansky's doubts, Turai promises that he can use his playwriting skills to engineer “a hit, a wedding and a happy ending.” Sending Mansky to keep an eye on Adam, Turai calls for a pen and paper, and sets to work.

The next morning, having been up all night, Turai puts his plan into action. He meets with Ilona and Almady, who are shocked to learn that they have been overheard and that their past affair is no longer a secret. Turai tells them that he can save both their marriages if they will follow his instructions without question.

Turai has stayed up all night writing a play which incorporates their entire conversation of the night before. Ilona and Almady will agree to perform the play that evening for their host, the Count, and the other guests at the castle, and it will seem to everyone that the conversation was merely a rehearsal for the play. Meanwhile, the device of the play enables Turai to have some fun at the expense of Almady, whom he despises.

Ilona persuades the Count's secretary, Mell, to agree to the substitution of Turai's play (which they pass off as a sentimental French melodrama by Sardou), and a rehearsal is arranged for that afternoon. As Almady struggles with the absurdly complicated dialogue Turai has given him to speak (and with the portrayal of his character as “a bounder and a fool”), Adam and Mansky “realize” that the previous night's bedroom conversation was just a rehearsal for the play.

Adam and Ilona's relationship is saved, and Almady slinks away humiliated as Turai congratulates himself on another audience-pleasing happy ending.

Major Characters:

Sandor Turai – a famous middle-aged dramatist, known, with his writing partner Mansky, “for all comedies, farces and operettas.”

Mansky – Turai's writing partner, also middle-aged.

Albert Adam – the gifted young composer of Turai and Mansky's latest operetta, “a dreamy, handsome boy” of 25, engaged to Ilona.

Ilona Szabo – the prima donna of Turai and Mansky's acting company, engaged to Albert Adam.

Almady – a middle-aged actor known for his roles as a dashing romantic lead and for his dalliances with young actresses (despite his being “a father with four children”).

Johann Dwornitschek – the castle's unflappable butler

Mr. Mell – the Count's secretary, in charge of (among other things) arranging and stage managing the entertainment at the castle

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