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ROBERT THOMAS (1927 - 1989) |
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Nationality: French Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
Robert Thomas (28 September 1927 ? 3 January 1989) was born in Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France, as Robert Albert Louis Thomas. and is something of a forgotten man in French theatre and cinema despite having been a prolific actor, playwright and movie director. At the age of fourteen, Robert Thomas discovered a passion for contemporary theatre and claimed that by the time he was 18 he had read every play published in French since 1900. He left home just before taking his baccalaureat, going to Paris so he could write and act in comedies there. He paid for his theatre course with his salary as a telegrapher and worked as an extra in over fifty films. At the same time, he wrote seven plays (which were all rejected). In 1950, he applied to Pierre Dux who employed him in Il faut marier Maman (You must marry Mother) thus beginning a career in the theatre, acting notably in La Main de Cesar (Caesars hand) and Les Belles Bacchantes (The Beautiful Bacchantes.) His first two plays, Huit Femmes (Eight Women) and Madam Trait dUnion (Mrs Hyphen) were staged in Nice in 1958 and 1959, but neither achieved success. As a writer, almost from the beginning, he was fascinated by a curious genre that he helped invent: the comédie policière or comedy thriller, of which Piege Pour un Homme Seul (Trap For A Lonely Man), his most celebrated play and an overnight success when first staged in Paris at the Bouffes-Parisiens on 28 January 1960. This play, rewarded by the Prix du Quai des Orfevres, was translated and produced all over the world. It would later be filmed for TV as Honeymoon with a Stranger in 1969. Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights with the intention of filming Trap For A Lonely Man with a cast of international stars, but died before being able to do so. The play established Thomas as a writer of psychological crime dramas with a distinctively Gallic comic twist. In 1961 a remounting of his first play, Eight Women, also a detective mystery, was extremely successful and won the Hachette Prix du Quai des Orfevres for Best Play. Eight Women was adapted into a movie musical in 2002 with a star-studded line-up that included Catherine Deneuve. In 1966, in La Perruche et le Poulet (The Parrot and the Chicken), the playwright reunited the famous couple of the radio programme Sur le Banc (On the Bench): Jane Sourza and Raymond Souplex. Other important plays by Robert Thomas are Le Deuxieme coup de Feu (The Second Shot) 1965, Assassins associes (Murderers Associated) also 1965, Freddy and Un ami imprevu (An Unforeseen Friend) in the style of Agatha Christie, both 1969. That same year, he was responsible for the book for an operetta called Le Marchand de Soleil at the Théâtre Mogador in Paris, with music by Henri Betti and Lyrics by Jacques Mareuil. Double jeu (Double Game) followed in 1970, La Poulette aux oeufs dor (The Chicken and the Golden Eggs) in 1973, La chambre Mandarine (The Mandarin Room) in 1974, and Les Batards (The Bastards) in 1979. In 1983 he scripted and directed a film, Mon Curé chez les Thaïlandaises (My priest at the house of the Thai women), described as an erotic comedy! Also in 1983, his play Catch Me, If You Can was performed at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts. Princesse Baraka (Princess Baraka) was produced posthumously in 1995. Thomas also produced television series, sometimes writing episodes and sometimes appearing in them. From 1970 until his death in 1989, he was the Director of The Edward VII Theatre in Paris. In a programme note, Donald Sturrock comments that: " Thomass plays were never trendy or fashionable and he was often dismissed by French critics and intellectuals. But his public loved him, and the best of his work is elegant and well-constructed. It is also unlike anything else in its peculiar juxtaposition of tension and laughter. "
Adaptation / Translations of Plays by Robert Thomas
Ding Dong Dead | ||
| 1st Produced: | Redgrave Farnham | 1991 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #34549 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 0 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Robert Thomas | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Eight Women | ||
| 1st Produced: | Southwark Playhouse, Shipwright Yard, (Corner of Tooley St. & Bermondsey St.), London SE1 2TF >>> | 15 Mar 2011 | ||||
Company: | Borealis Theatre | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #123634 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Translation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 8 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Robert Thomas | |||||
Synopsis: | Part comedy, part murder-mystery, the action centres around eight women of the same family who try to discover who has killed the master of the house. | |||||
Further Reference: | Theatre Record Volume XXXI Issue 06 Page 291 | |||||
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Trap For A Lonely Man | ||
| 1st Produced: | Savoy, London | 05 Mar 1963 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Josef Weinberger 2002 | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0856760297 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #99372 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Translation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Robert Thomas, translated by Lucienne Hill And John Sutro | |||||
| Daniel Corban reports his wife missing to the police. He is very upset. a young priest arrives and says he has found Madame Corban alive and well. He brings in the woman - Daniel insists that it is not his wife. Several people arrive and say that she is Madame Corban. Daniel feels he is loosing his grip on reality | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Trap For A Lonely Man | ||
| 1st Produced: | Savoy, London | 05 Mar 1963 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Josef Weinberger 2002 | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0856760297 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #102251 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Translation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Robert Thomas, translated by Lucienne Hill And John Sutro | |||||
| Daniel Corban reports his wife missing to the police. He is very upset. a young priest arrives and says he has found Madame Corban alive and well. He brings in the woman - Daniel insists that it is not his wife. Several people arrive and say that she is Madame Corban. Daniel feels he is loosing his grip on reality | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Trap For A Lonely Man | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | English Theatre Guild, London, 1964 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #34550 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Robert Thomas | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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