L'Heureux Stratagème

MARIVAUX WROTE MORE FOR THE COMÉDIE-ITALIENNE than for the Comédie-Française; the Italians’ “impromptu”, natural acting style was more in tune with the character of his plays. But Marivaux’s work experienced a decline when the Comédie-Italienne merged with the Opéra-Comique in 1762 and their new repertoire focused on light opera. As for the Comédie-Française, of the ten plays premiered there, only three were maintained by the eve of the Revolution. During the revolutionary unrest, the Comédiens-Français, and in particular Mademoiselle Contat, sought to bring Marivaux back into favour. Nevertheless, in this dark period, his theatre was criticised for what was deemed its lightness, volubility and banter, the futile embroidery of “marivaudage”.

The Empire restored the Marivaux repertoire, now wonderfully served by Mademoiselle Mars, but it was not until 1860 that a first major study revealed the full richness of his work (Marivaux, sa vie et ses œuvres by Larroumet). But the moralist nineteenth century had little inclination for the “metaphysics of the heart”, games of disguised identities and the subversive freedom of class relations. TheAncien Régime society in which these plays were grounded was now supplanted by an omnipotent bourgeoisie that held the reins of economic power. Only four or five Marivaux plays were performed throughout the century, always the same ones: The Legacy, The False Confidences, The Test and The Game of Love and Chance.

Marivaux’s work began to be rediscovered in the twentieth century, from the inter-war period, namely at the Comédie-Française, which added a large number of plays to its Repertoire. All the same it remained little performed until recently, when Marivaux in particular benefited from the arrival of modern staging at the Comédie-Française. While the Molière, Racine and Corneille repertoire tends to be analyzed through the prism of “tradition”, according to which the actor is the sole custodian of an acting art inherited from his or her predecessors –acting styles and performances were passed down from actor to actor– this type of system did not apply to Marivaux. The director was therefore free to give an original interpretation of his repertoire. Marivaux’s theatre, which had never been enjoyed any great success at the Comédie-Française during the author’s lifetime, is now one of the pillars of the Repertoire, particularly since the 1950s.

Although the text of La Commère (The Gossip), a play that was believed lost, was found in the archives in 1965 and staged immediately afterwards, some of the forty or so plays Marivaux wrote are still missing from the Repertoire: The Prudent and Equitable Father, Love and Truth, The Village Heir, The Triumph of Pluto, The Faithful Wife, Félicie and The Provincial Woman. In 2016, Clément Hervieu-Léger staged Le Petit-Maître corrigé (The Fop Reformed), a play that was performed only twice in its maiden production as it was targeted by a cabal. Similarly, Emmanuel Daumas is reviving a lesser known work, L’Heureux Stratagème (The Successful Stratagem), which had never been performed before at the Comédie-Française.