Italian Straw Hat

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price

A classic 19th-century French farce by Eugène Labiche.

Fadinard is on the way to his wedding when his horse eats a straw hat hanging on a bush. The owner of the hat is a former girlfriend who insists that Fadinard buys her a new hat instantly. He sets off to find a replacement hat, followed by his fiancée and all their guests. The play develops into a delirious chase as Fadinard hunts the hat and the guests hunt Fadinard and comic misunderstandings litter every scene.

Eugène Labiche's play An Italian Straw Hat was premiered at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris in 1851.

This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.