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The Play's The Thing (play)
Adapted by PG Wodehouse in 1926 from Jatek a Kastelyban by Hungarian playwright, Ferenc Molnar. Wodehouse said of the play, 'I have never had a success on stage when I have written the story, and I have never had a failure when the story had been supplied by someone else.'

Plot
As the lights come up in Act One, Sandor laments the difficulties of beginning a comedy. All that tedious exposition! All that wasted time! Why not simply tell the audience precisely whom they're watching, and what the characters are about? And so he does...

Two collaborators, the energetic Sandor Turai and the dour Manskry have enjoyed fairy successful careers as librettists. They have just glommed onto a fledgling composer, Albert Adam who looks to be their key to the Main Chance. Not only can the youth write popular tunes, he is engaged to Ilona (J. Smith-Cameron), a diva who has promised to star in their new operetta. The three men hole up in a picturesque castle-cum-hotel, ready to begin work. In order to make their stay a complete delight, Sandor has secretly invited Ilona to take the suite next door. He plans to reveal the surprise to Albert that night. The trio gathers -- and suddenly the smiles congeal on their faces as incriminating noises issue from the adjoining room. Ilona is manifestly in the throes of passion with her married lover Almady (Jeff Weiss). Albert dashes out, distraught-so distraught that any hope of creativity is dashed, even if he fails to carry out his threat of suicide.

What to do? Ilona and Almady are beside themselves. Mansky wrings his hands. Only Turai keeps his head; he regards the situation as a challenge. While all are asleep, he writes a play in the style of Sardou, the 19th-century French dramatist, that incorporates the compromising dialogue of the previous night. By threatening to expose Almady's extra-marital capers to the world, he convinces the pair to play along with him in every sense of the word. Together they will work on Albert, persuading him that what he overheard was merely a rehearsal for the one-act drama. Rather than being in love, Ilona and Almady will claim, they can barely stand each others' company. The whole thing has been a ghastly misunderstanding.

To prove their sincerity the lovers duly act out the play within the play, with Albert as witness. It features double entendres, hysterical prompting, and constant aid from a hotel factotum, Johann Dwornitschek (a character invented by Wodehouse and a fictional corollary of himself).