Les parents terribles

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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."^{[citation needed]} It was adapted for film in 1948, with Jean Marais as Michael, under the title Les parents terribles or The Storm Within.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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."