Les parents terribles

Jean Cocteau's 1948 boulevard farce-with-a-vengeance "Les parents terribles" tells the tale of Michael and his 'parents terribles', George and Yvonne. It was once dubbed "Noel Coward on Opium."Fact|date=January 2008 It was adapted for film in 1948, with Jean Marais as Michael, under the title "Les parents terribles" or "The Storm Within."

Plot summary

Michael is smitten with the beautiful Madeleine, little knowing that she is the former mistress of his father. Lovable Aunt Leo casts just enough of a jaundiced eye on the proceedings to give the audience a character with whom they can relate.

1994/5 productions

Jude Law portrayed Michael in a 1994 Royal National Theatre production. A year later he made his Broadway debut in a revised production entitled "Indiscretions". His appearance in a nude scene caused a stir, being long enough, as one reviewer put it, "to run home and get your binoculars". A favourable review was received from "The New York Times". Vincent Canby wrote: "The play is something else. It is a lethal if often hilarious farce about the darkest neuroses of familiar comic characters. These people, as Leo says, are children who sometimes commit terrible crimes."