The Italian Straw Hat (play)
The Italian Straw Hat (French: Un chapeau de paille d'Italie) is a five-act comedy by Eugene Labiche and Marc-Michel. It premiered at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on 14 August 1851. It was cited by the philosopher Henri Bergson in Le Rire as an example of the "snowball" effect.
Plot
On the morning of Fadinard's wedding day, his horse eats a straw hat belonging to Anaïs, while she is hidden behind a bush talking with her lover. The couple follow him to his house and refuse to leave it until Fadinard replaces the hat with an identical one, since Anaïs's husband is jealous and astonished by the hat's disappearance.
Saying nothing to his fiancee, who keeps following him, Fadinard leaves to look for an identical hat – seemingly a simple task at first, it soon becomes harder and harder. His quest takes him to a milliner, then to a baroness and then to a bachelor. On each occasion his fiancee arrives hot on his heels, dazed and clumsy and invariably getting them both into trouble. The denouement finally occurs in the street outside Fadinard's house.
Adaptations
The film was adapted in French by an unknown director in 1910 as Un chapeau de paille, then as Un chapeau de paille d'Italie in 1928, directed by René Clair. It was also adapted as Horse Eats Hat by Orson Welles and Edwin Denby and directed at the Maxine Elliott Theatre by Welles himself in 1936. Produced with the assistance of the Federal Theatre Project (a New Deal project), its cast was Joseph Cotten, Edgerton Paul (alternating with Welles), Bil Baird, Arlene Francis, George Duthie, Donald MacMillian, Dana Stevens, Sidney Smith, Harry McKee, France Bendtsen, Virginia Welles, Paula Laurence, Sarah Burton and Henriette Kaye.
A German film adaptation, Der Florentiner Hut, was directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner in 1939. Another Italian one followed in 1941, entitled Un chapeau de paille d'Italie, directed by Maurice Cammage and starring Fernandel as Fadinard. It was adapted by Nino Rota (music) and Ernesta Rinaldi (book) as the musical Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, premiered at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on 21 April 1955. The final film adaptation to date was in 1974, as Соломенная шляпка (Un chapeau de paille), directed by Leonid Kvinikhidze.
References
- ↑ "Un chapeau de paille d'Italie – Les Archives du Spectacle". Lesarchivesduspectacle.net. Retrieved 2016-04-16.