French Without Tears

For the film adaptation, see French Without Tears (film).

French Without Tears is a comic play written by a 25-year-old Terence Rattigan in 1936.

French Without Tears
Kay Hammond & Roland Culver in the original Criterion Theatre production, 1936
Written by	Terence Rattigan
Date premiered	1936
Original language	English
Genre	Comedy

Setting

It takes place in a cram school for adults needing to acquire French for business reasons. Scattered throughout are Franglais phrases and schoolboy misunderstandings of the French language.

The play was inspired by a 1933 visit to a village called Marxzell in the Black Forest, where young English gentlemen went to cram German.

Reception

The play was a success on its London debut, establishing Rattigan as a dramatist. A critic thought it "gay, witty, thoroughly contemporary ... with a touch of lovable truth behind all its satire."^[1]

It ran for over 1,000 performances in London, and over 100 in New York.^[2] It also established Rex Harrison as a major star.

Original production

The play, directed by Harold French, opened on 6 November 1936 at the Criterion Theatre, London, with the following cast:^[3]

• Alan Howard - Rex Harrison
• Brian Curtis - Guy Middleton
• Commander Bill Rogers - Roland Culver
• Diana Lake - Kay Hammond
• Jacqueline Maingot - Jessica Tandy
• Kenneth Lake - Trevor Howard
• Kit Neilan - Robert Flemyng
• Lord Heybrook - William Dear
• Marianne/t/o Jacqueline Maingot - Yvonne Andre
• Monsieur Maingot - Percy Walsh

Adaptations

A film version, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Ray Milland, was released in 1940.^[4] In 1960 Rattigan himself refashioned the work as the musical Joie de Vivre but it was not a success.^[5]

The play was revived in Paris in the summer of 1945 starring the British actress, Anna Neagle.

A television production was featured in the Saturday Playhouse TV series on 7 June 1958, with Denholm Elliott, Elvi Hale, Colin Broadley, Nicholas Parsons, and Andrew Irvine^[6] and another in the BBC's Play of the Month series on 16 May 1976, starring Nigel Havers, Anthony Andrews and David Robb.^[7]

A radio version directed by Gerry Jones was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 25 December 1986, repeated on 14 May 1989 and 20 July 1992.^[8]