Le Mariage forcé ・ Comédie-Française

“I love games, visits, assemblies, presents and going for walks; in a word, all things pleasurable: and you would surely be delighted to have a wife of my character”, Dorimène tells the man who has proposed to her.

Le Mariage forcé inverts the conventions of a patriarchal society by portraying a shameless coquette with a highly modern attitude: far from the innocence of Agnes in L’École des femmes, Dorimène sees her alliance with Sganarelle as the promise of a wealthy life lived independently, especially with the boy she loves. The subject of the farce is this man in his old age, a naive bourgeois who is disconcerted by the libertarian discourse of the woman he thought he could dominate, and who hastily and vainly consults philosophers, bohemians and magicians in order to be reassured about his marriage, which is to be celebrated that very evening.

Louis Arene knows the Comédie-Française well, having left in 2016 to devote himself, through his company, Munstrum Théâtre, to a distinct approach to masked theatre using very fine materials that are moulded to the actors’ faces. This season he is reunited with his former comrades from the Troupe, directing them in this “farce-masquerade” in which he instils an exceptional dreamlike and pictorial dimension: “By masking the characters in Le Mariage Forcé, I seek to create lines of tension between the comic and the tragic, the kitsch and the sublime, the sacred and the profane” in favour of “an aesthetic language that goes beyond norms and codes”.

Louis Arene

Comedy in 1 act

Work first performed: 29 January 1664 at the Louvre in the apartments of the Queen mother
Comédie-Française premiere: 12 September 1680 at the Théâtre de l’Hôtel Guénégaud
1,335 performances of the work by the Comédie-Française since the premiere.

New production

With the patronage of Sidas — Podiatech

Creative team

Directed by: Louis Arene
Dramaturgy: Laurent Muhleisen
Scenography: Éric Ruf and Louis Arene
Costumes: Colombe Lauriot Prévost
Lighting: François Menou
Sound: Jean Thévenin
Masks: Louis Arene
Artistic collaboration: Lionel Lingelser
Assistant director: Emilie Lacoste de l’académie de la Comédie-Française
Scenography assistant: Auriane Robert de l’académie de la Comédie-Française
Costume assistant: Caroline Trossevin

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