Florent Dancourt

The Village Coquette & the Crazy Wager Florent Dancourt

Two French comedies of love and life and the relations between men and women. In THE VILLAGE COQUETTE a Widow trains a country girl, Lisette, in the ways of a Parisian coquette, thinking to make her into an image of herself; but finds that her protégée has become too apt a pupil for the Widow's own comfort, and threatens to steal the older woman's own lover. THE CRAZY WAGER features some unusual gender-bending for the time. Tiggs, an older man camouflaged as a rich woman (the Marquise), pretends to love Angelica, who adopts the guise of a young, handsome Count--while the "Count" pretends to love the aging Mrs. Hardwick, so she can actual marry the widow's handsome son, Phillip. Both plays possess great vivacity and are full of laughter and fun.