The great master of French staging Alain Françon takes on a theater classic: “Lesfalse Confidences” by Marivaux. He delivers a revised version with a rock background at the Théâtre de Carouge (GE) until October 19, then in Villars-sur-Glâne (FR) at the Théâtre Equilibre-Nuithonie on October 30 and 31.
The young Dorante, eager to conquer the heart of Araminte, a rich and attractive widow, has a plan: to be hired as her steward. With the help of his former valet Dubois, he sets up intrigues and anonymous letters, and the game begins: all the characters resort to false confidences, all play the card of their interests.
In “Lesfalse Confidences”, a comedy in three acts and in prose by Marivaux performed for the first time in 1737, the writer’s language is a powerful lever which undermines elegance and reveals vices. Thanks to the talent of French director Alain Françon, being and appearing intertwine in a waltz that stuns and delights.
Marivaux, a theater of abstraction
Alain Françon is not his first attempt: he has directed more than a hundred plays and a very wide variety of authors. And he knows Marivaux well for having directed “La double inconstancy” in 1981, then “The second surprise of love” in 2022.
“When I produced ‘La double inconstance’ in 1981 and listened to the result, I found that I had understood absolutely nothing and that I should definitely not touch this author any more. And then, he A few years ago (…), I reread Marivaux and decided to produce ‘The Second Surprise of Love’. There I understood what I had not understood and it interested me enormously. I have become fanatic of this author”, underlines Alain Françon in the Vertigo show on October 2.
And added: “I especially didn’t understand how to say it. There is no action, so it’s the words that create the intrigue. Saying is doing, so how say?”. For the director, Marivaux is a matter of rhythm, a theater of abstraction.
>> Listen to the interview with Alain Françon in Vertigo:
Marivaux, a not-so-light author
“False Confidences” presents itself as a fairly simple love story. However, quite quickly, we no longer know who to believe. Who manipulates who? Who tells the truth? Even wondering if the love we have for each other is truly sincere. This play is the last in three acts by Marivaux who wrote it towards the end of his life. Accustomed to telling the surprise of love, Marivaux delivers with “Lesfalse Confidences” a text different from his previous ones.
With his version of “Fausses confidences”, the director Alain Françon offers us a revised version against a backdrop of rock music of this theater classic in which the weight of words and language plays the main role.
Comments collected by Anne Laure Gannac
Web adaptation: Lara Donnet
“Lesfalse Confidences” by Marivaux, directed by Alain Françon, with Pierre-François Garel (Dorante), Guillaume Lévêque (Monsieur Remy), Gilles Privat (Dubois), Yasmina Remil (Marton), Séraphin Rousseau (Lubin), Alexandre Ruby (The Count), Dominique Valadié (Madame Argante), Georgia Scalliet (Araminte), Maxime Terlin (A Jeweler Boy), Théâtre de Carouge (GE), from September 24 to October 19, 2024; Théâtre Equilibre-Nuithonie, Villars-sur-Glâne (FR), October 30 and 31, 2024.
Related News :