THE STORY: In this new adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s 1940 romantic comedy, Amanda, a poor hat maker from Paris, is invited to a chateau by an eccentric duchess to spend a weekend trying to make her suicidal nephew, Albert, forget about the death of his great love, the divine Leocadia. Amanda, it turns out, is a dead ringer for the dead woman, and if she can convince Albert that she is his lost love for just three days, then Albert just might not kill himself. A gossamer tale of love and trickery, in which a fake can give more pleasure than the real thing.
“Under Hatcher’s pen, the tale keeps its French accent but crackles with the wit and charm of America’s old 'screwball comedy’ films…All is springtime and light inside the Guthrie Theater, where Hatcher’s sunny look at an old play makes you want to drive home with the windows wide open…a happy contagion that spreads through the audience like a fresh breeze…Guthrie audiences haven’t laughed as loud, as hard, or as consistently in years.” —St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch.
“Hatcher’s clever humor relies on ironic wit and a keen eye for poking fun at the absurdity of pompous arrogance…This flavor fills a script that clearly reflects Anouilh’s themes of memory’s aching beauty and the preference humans have for infatuation over real-life love. A delightful farce that intelligently wonders about the nature of love, artifice, the eye’s perception rather than the heart’s reality, and the delicate distortion of memory.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune.
“Delightfully frothy. Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s Leocadia is wonderfully clever.” —Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages.
“Anouilh is dancing here with his favorite theme, the interplay between illusion and memory. Hatcher interprets Leocadia as a featherweight idyll…infusing the play with a tart and distinctly American wit…light and nimble.” —Variety.
