doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


Peter Meyer

PETER MEYER

  (1916 - 2007)
Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Alan Brodie Representation Ltd  (estate)

Peter Meyer was a distinguished translator of French Drama. His acclaimed translations include plays by Georges Feydeau (Better Late, One Month Early, Take Your Medicine Like a Man, Don't Walk About With Nothing On, Fitting For Ladies, A Close Shave, Sauce For the Goose); Alfred de Musset (MariAnne, Fantasio, Don't Trifle With Love, the Candlestick, A Diversion, A Door Must Be Open Or Shut, You Can't Think Of Everything); Arthur Adamov (Professor TarAnne, Dead Souls, Spring '71); Michel Vinaver (Dissident, Goes Without Saying; Nina, That's Something Else; A Smile on the End of the Line) and Jean Anouilh (Eurydice). He translated 13 monologues by Cocteau and Feydeau, 11 of which were commissioned by the BBC and performed on radio by leading actors including Eileen Atkins, Jill Bennett, Richard Briers, Judi Dench, Alec McCowen and Timothy West. Peter died on 19 July 2007.

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

below is a list of Peter Meyer's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         All Against All         Better Late         Candlestick, The         Close Shave, A         Dead Souls         Dissident, Goes Without Saying         Diversion, A         Don't Trifle With Love         Don't Walk About With Nothing On         Door Must Be Open or Shut, A         Eurydice         Fantasio         Fitting for Ladies         Marianne         Nina, That's Something Else         One Month Early         Professor Taranne         Sauce for the Goose         Smile On the End Of the Line, A         Spring 71         Take Your Medicine Like a Man         You Can't Think of Everything
All Against All

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Arthur Adamov

1st Produced:
20th Century Theatre, London     07 Apr 1959

Organisations:
New Art Theatre Company

1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Plays volume One" published by John Calder    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Better Late

Synopsis:
loosely based on the breakdown of Feydeau's own marriage

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau ( Feu La Mere De Madame)

1st Produced:
Drama Centre, London     09 Jul 2001

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1976   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation one act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Candlestick, The

Synopsis:
infatuated clerk is set up as a decoy by his employer's young wife and her lover.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alfred de Musset

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Close Shave, A

Close Shave, A
a woman's would-be lover has to assume the identity of her artist husband, who is about to be called up for military service.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Dead Souls

Dead Souls
Dead Souls is Adamov's Dramatisation of Gogol's blackly comic novel. Mysterious entrepreneur Tchitchikov approaches the landowners and bureaucrats of a provincial town with the proposal that he will buy the 'dead souls' of deceased peasants, and in the process exposes a society filled with paranoia and corruption.
Oberon

Notes:
Original Playwright - Arthur Adamov (Les Ames Mortes, based on the novel by Nikolai Gogol)

1st Produced:
BBC Third Programme     1961

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  large cast

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Dissident, Goes Without Saying

Synopsis:
presents fragmentary snapshots of the relationship between a single mother and her adolescent son

Notes:
Original Playwright - Michael Vinaver; theatre de chambre

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays: One" Methuen, London, 1997   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Diversion, A

Synopsis:
a wife and her friend test her husband's fidelity, or lack of it

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alfred de Musset

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation, 1 Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Don't Trifle With Love

Synopsis:
shows the dangerous strategems of two childhood sweethearts, supposedly destined for marriage.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alfred de Musset

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Don't Walk About With Nothing On

Don't Walk About With Nothing On
loosely based on the breakdown of Feydeau's own marriage

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau

1st Produced:
Drama Centre, London     09 Jul 2001

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation one act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Door Must Be Open or Shut, A

Synopsis:
De Musset's 1845 short play is given here with a prelude based on his 12-line poem Le rideau de ma voisine which presents us with a man looking across to a window opposite and hoping that a movement of a curtain means that the woman there is wondering whether he is watching her. He does indeed seem to be the same character as the besotted Baron of the 50 minute two-hander which shows him calling upon his neighbour the Marquise and his gradual progression from diffident politeness to a declaration of his love.
- Howard Loxton, British theatre Guide

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alfred de Musset

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Eurydice

Synopsis:
My journey into journalism was an unhappy one - an affectionate excursion which went sour. About the life and work in the offices of a big Sunday newspaper during one week.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Jean Anouilh; broadcast BBC 14/07/85

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays 2" Methuen, London, 1997   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Fantasio

Synopsis:
In the eponymous hero of the modern 'fairy tale' 'Fantasio, by turns imaginative, abrupt and perceptive, Musset provides us with a compelling self-portrait.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alfred de Musset

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Fitting for Ladies

Fitting for Ladies
a man on the look-out for a new romantic rendezvous is mistaken for a dressmaker. . .

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Marianne

Synopsis:
a confirmed cynic intercedes with a married woman on behalf of his best friend.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alfred de Musset

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Nina, That's Something Else

Synopsis:
depicts a threesome: two brother living together who cope with the arrival of the unpredictable but compelling Nina, her brief period of living with them and her subsequent departure

Notes:
Original Playwright - Michael Vinaver; theatre de chambre

1st Produced:
Not Performed    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays: One" Methuen, London, 1997   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

One Month Early

One Month Early
loosely based on the breakdown of Feydeau's own marriage

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau

1st Produced:
Bbc    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Professor Taranne

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Arthur Adamov

1st Produced:
-     1953

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Adamov, A., Two Plays" Calder & Boyars, London, 1962   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Absurd Drama Absurd

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Sauce for the Goose

Sauce for the Goose
a man discovers that the woman he is pursuing is the wife of an old friend. . .

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Smile On the End Of the Line, A

Synopsis:
set in the after sales office of a manufacturing business shows how take overs, strikes etc affect a small number of the firms employees

Notes:
Original Playwright - Michael Vinaver; Aka Blendin In (Traverse Th 1989

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays: One" Methuen, London, 1997   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Spring 71

Spring 71
Motivated in part by his own communist sympathies, Spring 71 reflects Adamov's view of the Paris Commune in 1871. A rich and complex depiction of a city in the throes of major upheaval, it interweaves satire, history and tragedy to show how the stories of normal people influence - and are influenced by - the onward march of history.
Oberon

Notes:
Original Playwright - Arthur Adamov (Le Printemps 71)

1st Produced:
BBC Third Programme     1963

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  large cast

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Take Your Medicine Like a Man

Take Your Medicine Like a Man
loosely based on the breakdown of Feydeau's own marriage

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Feydeau

1st Produced:
BBC    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

You Can't Think of Everything

Synopsis:
a couple in love, one absent-minded, the other forgetful, tries to concentrate long enough to get married.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alfred de Musset

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation, 1 Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page