Anything to Declare
Panic is the chief ingredient of ANYTHING TO DECLARE?, a 1906 French farce.... as the emergencies mount for a bashful bridegroom, his hypocritical father-in-law, a frustrated former suitor and a de-pantsed camel dealer. Farce, which requires absolute conviction in the face of increasingly absurd circumstances, may be the most fragile of theatrical forms. ANYTHING, by Feydeau contemporaries Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber, puts the players through some demanding paces. Laurence Senelick's gleefully euphemistic translation. --Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle