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Back to article: CHARLES MAURICE DONNAY (1859– )

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DONNAY, CHARLES MAURICE (1859– ), French dramatist, was born of middle-class parents in Paris in 18J9. He made his serious debut as a dramatist on the little stage of the Chat Noir with Phryne (1891), a series of Greek scenes. Lysistrata, a four-act comedy, was produced at the Grand Theatre in 1892 with Mme Rejane in the title part. Later plays were Folle Entreprise (1894); Pension de famille (1894); Complices (1895), in collaboration with M. Groselande; Amants (1895), produced at the Renaissance theatre with Mme Jeanne Granier as Claudine Rozeray; La Douloureuse (1897); L'Affranchie (1898); Georgette Lemeunier (1898); Le Torrent (1899), at the Comedie Fran9aise; Education de prince (Igoo); La Clairiere (Igoo), and Oiseaux de passage (1904), in collaboration with L. Descaves; La Bascule (Igor); L'Autre danger, at the Comedie Fran9aise (1902); Le Retour de Jerusalem (1903); L' scalade (1904); and Paraftre (1906). With Amants he won a great success, and the play was hailed by Jules Lemaitre as the Berenice of contemporary French drama. Very advanced ideas on the relations between the sexes dominate the whole series of plays, and the witty dialogue is written with an apparent carelessness that approximates very closely to the language of every day.