Played by Ellen Lowe, Caroline is one of the recurring comic characters from the Comica and Nizza studios, based in Nice. Like her contemporaries, Léontine and Rosalie, Caroline is a walking disaster and causes havoc in the daily life of her employers. Because Caroline is a domestic servant, her character perpetuates the tradition of the mischievous servant prevalent in French theatre, especially in comedies. In Caroline fait du sabotage, the servant scuppers her master and mistress’s plans for an evening out, and ends up wrecking their sitting room, making the utterly helpless middle-class couple a complete laughing stock. When she is thrown out of the window, Caroline lands on the pavement with such hilarity that neither the violence nor her dismissal can dampen it.

Carole Fodor