Predictably, in a strictly Catholic France where actors were excommunicated and refused burial in consecrated ground (though churchmen patronised the theatre and wrote plays themselves), the usual dour moral lessons were drawn.

ECONOMIST: Mysterious Moli��re

In Lead Balloon, which Dee devised and co-wrote, Dee plays disillusioned comic Rick Spleen who hosts corporate events such as The Heating and Ventilation Awards.

BBC: Louise Delamere in The Chatterley Affair

Ms Lux wrote plays and operettas for them and, when her twins were born, they eventually joined the act too.

ECONOMIST: Lillian Lux

In the new film, which he also wrote and co-edited, Kitano plays Nishi, a policeman on the slide.

NEWYORKER: Fireworks

At the rate of 20 manuscript pages a day, Sand wrote some 80 novels, 25 plays, and countless articles and short stories.

ECONOMIST: France remembers a prolific author

The band takes its name from one of the many plays Muhl wrote when she was a child, and here she goes into some detail about the imaginative plot of that play.

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