New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-10
NEW. FRENCH COMEDY.
"Rusiness Is Business" Produced at
the Theatre Francois.
Paris. April q.

Business Is Business" c'Les Affaires Sont
les sffaires'O, the three act comedy by Octave
srlrbeau produced last night at the Theatre
Francais, is uTQuestionably the strongest play
produced during the present season. Business
&C. Business" will next year be given in New
York London and Berlin. It has faults of con-
s.ruction and exaggerations of expression The
characters 90 not appeal to our sympathy, but
the third act eliminates in a scene Of tragic in
.ensfty and logical brutality unsurpassed in
modern French drama Not since Baizac's Mer-
cadet has the INSCRIPTIONS money getting spec
uIator been portrayed in such strongly drawn
lines SIS Octave Mirbeau has sketched his Isl
dore Lechat. the UP to date company promoter.
Indeed. this character stands forth with the
nervous outline OF q masterpiece chiselled by
Hodin. and the superb inpersonation of the part
4. q success for De Feraudy not attained by any
actor in Paris since CoQuelin created" Cyrano
&c BeTgersc
The first act represents the terraced gardens
and double of beautifully trimmed lime
trees OF the historic chateau Of vauperdu. an
hours distance from Paris, recently purchased
ty Isidore Iechat, the omnipotent company pro-
rno5er. Socialist candidate for the Chamber Of
Deputies. boon companion OF ministers. posses
sor Of fortune Of 100000 francs and owner
CT an influential Radical newspaper Lechat is
of low birth and is uneducated. He has twice
Gene to financial disaster and has served
term Of Imprisonment. but he is now up in the
world" His wife is good souled creature. who
is worried and out OF place amid the unaccus-
toned luxury of her surroundings. Their daugh-
ter Germaine. sort Of mystic Ibsen girl, de-
tests her father for his rascality and despises her
mother. who is merely busting. vulgar house.
wife Gerraine is. however in love with Lucien
Carraud a young chemist in her fathers
ploy, and the couple find consolation in their
na.son.
Il is Saturday afternoon. Lechat arrives IN
automobile with Gregg and Phinck. two
schemers, who have come to propose q big
financial operation TO Lechat, and. deceived by
his blunt 5ovfality. hope to make him a victim.
In 6 clever scene the two Adventures find them
selves in turn completely at the mercy Of Leohat,
who gets at the bottom Of their scheme and
strips it of rhetorical verbisge. and gets at the
kernel Of the proposition with the agility dis
played by q monkey in Smelling a walnut
Gregg and Phinck retire to draw UP the proposal
IN entirely different terms, this time in such
way that Lechat is to obtain the lions share.
Xavier Lechat, the company promoters only
son a spoiled youth of two and twenty, arrives
in an automobile TO get his father TO give him
200 francs which he has lost while playing bao-
carat at a Partisan club. Xavier gets the money
and goes away in his automobile.
ouis de Porcelet proprietor of the estate ad-
joining that of Lechat. calls. in the hope OF OBJ
tanning renewal of his mortgages, which have
all been bought up by Lechat, and of borrowing
200 600 francs besides. Lelcir. who acts the part
of the ruined noblennan, is got up to resemble
the late Lord Dufferin. In this scene we have
sort Of duel between the two principals that
have been struggling for mastery since the out
break of the French Revolution. The scene re-
calls the memorable dialogue between Cimou--
din and the Marquis de Lantenac in the "1793"
OF Victor Hugo. De Feraudy makes up the
character of Lechat TO look like Camille
PeIletan the Radical Deputy and Minister OF
Marine. They discharge at each other all the
artillery of their respective arsenals-that of the
progressive democracy of the day, with money
for its only motive power. and that of the van
ishing institutions of Royalty and Ciericalisn-
Octave Mirbeau presents the two sides of the
case with impartiality in language Of startling
force. The scene is something like that Of a de-
bate in the Chamber Of Deputies between
Jaures Socialist leader. and Comte Albert de
Nun. the parliamentary champion Of Catholi-
csm. Lechat proves to the venerable aristocrat
that the Porcelet estate IS already mortgaged
for more than it's market value and that If he
wishes he could turn him out Of house and
home, a ruined man. The willy, unscrupulous
company promoter. true to his principles that
every man has his price, finally suggests a COM
biuatiou by which the son Of the marquis should
marry Lechat's daughter Germaine Lechat in
return for this agreeing that the mortgages
should be wiped off, that the Porcelet mansion
in Paris should be repurchased, and that Ger
maine should have dowry the income Of which
would yield $4,000 a yea. thereby enabling the
family arrnorial bearings to be regilded- The
MARQUIS. after pathetic scene accepts the con-
dtions and Lechat sends for his wife and
daughter.
After formal presentations the marquis SOL
EMMY advances toward the fat, dumpy, vulgar
Nine Lechat and pronounces with great dig
rity the words: Mime. Lechat, have the honor
of demanding the hand of your daughter, Mile
Germaine for my son. Count Raoul de Por-
ceiet" Nine Lechst gets redder and redder
end shutters out some incCngruous reply But
c,ermaine rises to the situation and says: Not
vithstanding the honor you wish TO confer upon
me Monsieur le Marquis de Porcelet, refuse!
I.echat brfstIing with amazement and rage
shrieks out: What, you hussy, do you mean TO
say that you dare decline the marouis's offerf
What is the reason of your refusalE Ger
names astonishing answer is: YES, l refuse
irrevocabjv and the reason is because nave
lover The marquis. pale with emotion, with
draws. with the words. Il think after this we
have nothing more TO say to each other Lee
chat wild with anger, rushes at his daughter
and is about TO strange her, but is prevented
from doing so by his wife and by the young
lover Iucien Garraud. Germaine and Luclen
Garraud escape from the house and disappear.
Nine. Lechat coliapses in q 1T
But this is not all. Lechats steward brings
the news that young Xavier Lechat the spoiled