Fanny

Play in three acts and four tableaux.
Théâtre de Paris (December 5, 1931).

Original Edition

Paris, Fasquelle, 1932.

Main performers at the creation

Harry Baur – César
Berval – Marius
Fernand Charpin – Panisse
Orane Demazis – Fanny
Margueritte Chabert – Honorine
Paul Dullac – Escartefigue
Robert Vattier – Monsieur Brun
Maupi – Le chauffeur
Milly Mathis – Claudine

Summary

It’s been two months since Marius left and he hasn’t given any news. In the heavy and oppressive atmosphere of the Bar de la Marine, César is taciturn. When Fanny announces that she is expecting a child from Marius, Honorine, his mother, is devastated. Panisse, who had asked her to marry him, is overjoyed: he accepts the young mother and her child.
The baby is born. One evening, some time after the marriage, Marius reappears. He is cured of his desire to escape and wants to take back his property: Fanny and the baby. But Panisse is opposed to this and Marius, after hearing Fanny’s arguments, bows to the spectacle of family love surrounding the crib. He returns to his boat.

Caesar
Where was I? Let’s go on, be careful:
“When you start measuring the bottom of the sea, be careful not to lean over too much, and not to fall overboard, and where it will be too deep, let the others measure a little.”
I know him, Mr. Marius. Marius; when he was four years old, one day I had taken him fishing on Panisse’s boat, he bent over to look at his line and poof a man overboard!
It’s true that at that time, his head was heavier than his butt, and that since then it’s gotten better. Read me the last sentence again.

FANNY
“Let the others measure up a little.”

CÉSAR
Underline the others. Nice and thick. Good.
” And if someone… on board had the plague, only talk to him from a distance and don’t associate with him again, even if he was your best friend. Friendship is a wonderful thing, but the plague is the end of the world. Here, all is well and I am well, except for a terrible anger that took hold of me when you left, and which has not yet stopped. Little Fanny is not well. She hardly eats anything anymore and she is all pale.” (Fanny stopped writing.)
” Everyone notices it, and all day long people in the neighborhood repeat: “The little one will go from the cash register, and César will leave from the head. “Also, Honorine gives me bloody looks, and every time she looks at me, I wonder if she’s not going to shoot me with a revolver, and I get the shivers of death.”
Why don’t you write?

FANNY
Listen, César, I don’t think it’s necessary to put this on because it will hurt his feelings.