L'île des esclaves, a comedy by Marivaux first published in March 1725 was performed on Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 9 pm at the Théâtre de poche in Montparnasse. It is directed by Didier Long.
This piece, as Long points out, is premonitory. In the sense that it announces the revolution of 1789. This piece shows cross-dressing caused by the overthrow of the social order of the eighteenth century. The masters take the place of the servants and vice versa. This comedy advocates egalitarianism and fraternity. This piece is a human experience for the exercise of empathy. The pecking order is upset to place one man in the place of another and thus force compassion.
This piece is a social experiment. Today, our republican values display and affirm this fraternity, this equality of opportunity, this freedom to be. But our society also assumes a hierarchical system, which is why this piece is still updated today. It is also refreshing as the actors of this troupe present it to us well.
A symbolic staging
The décor is sober and simple. The stage is surrounded by palisades or screens, braided with dark brown or black threads, intertwined with each other. This creates an effect of brush, liana, and our imagination redraws the forest of an island. In the original piece, one must see on stage the sea and the huts, but here the sea is suggested by a blue light projected at ground level, and it is made perceptible by the music. The music pitches similar to the sounds that can be caused by a storm and a shipwreck. These clues are easily translated. As for the boxes, we imagine them, by the play of the actors who look in the distance, backstage, on the right side.
The décor suggests a lot, and gives free rein to the imagination we have of an island while bringing us back by these raw materials to a form of savagery. On the left side of the stage, the screens are arranged as if to form a path. Two mirrors or two plexiglasses, take the place of two screens. They allow you to see through and reflect the characters, so they play the role of mirror. The Mirror, in its physical functioning, is an inversion of the projected image. Their presence therefore illustrates the idea of role reversal and cross-dressing.
Throughout the play, the actors pass and pass in this path where the mirrors are placed. Once, Cleanthis looks at herself for a long time, dressed in the clothes of her mistress, she appreciates her new person and wants to play the role seriously. She takes her new life very seriously. The mirror, in its practical function, allows the reflection of one's own image when one looks at oneself, it is a way to know oneself, to recognize oneself, not to forget the kind of person that one is. But it is also a metaphorical way of seeing the other as ourselves. Moreover, at the beginning of the play, an unidentifiable man (who turns out to be Trivelin) comes out of nowhere, emerges from the audience, places himself behind the mirror while Iphicrates, who we guess is in the cabin of a boat, looks at himself through. The two men face each other, without seeing each other. The unknown man is the reflection of Iphicrates: this game announces the two objectives of the play: namely the experience of putting oneself in the place of others, of knowing him better in order to know oneself better. And this also announces the cross-dressing and the role that this unknown man, this persona in the costume, will play in the lives of the 4 characters.
The characters and the anachronistic
Thes 4 main characters, which are: Cléanthis played by Chloé Lambert, Euphrosine played by Julie Marboeuf, Harlequin by Pierre Olivier Mornas or Frédéric Rose who plays the role of Iphicrates have well-made costumes, because representative of the clothes of the eighteenth century. Corinne Rossi designed a frock coat, trousers, shirts, corsets, a dress with frills, baskets and skirts and other composite pieces of a noble dress in the 18th century. There are also other accessories just as precise and well made. But Trivelin has a costume quite different from the other characters. He is, by his costume, a totally anachronistic character. He wears a long black coat, black pants, black dress shoes. The kind of individual we meet today at the turn of the street. We are surprised and we wonder about this strange discrepancy!
Thischaracter, played by Hervé Briaux, is heir to the first instigators of the republic of the island. He says that freedom has softened their morals. He perhaps presents the same speech as the man of our time. This character is like teleported, coming from the future, and even during his stage appearances, he comes from outside, and comes out through the front of the stage, leaving the 4 characters to manage with his recommendations to be released. He appears as a sage and has a word of authority since it is he who distributes the word when he is on stage. Regarding the acting and the gestures of the characters: they realize very well the different comics. The comic of speech, when Harlequin wants to poetize his words: "we call it a tender sky", or the comic gesture with grimaces or movements, it is very amusing and they are made at the right time.
And finally the situation comedy, when Harlequin tries to teach Cleanthis but he absolutely does not respect the codes of the upper castes. Or when he tries to charm Euphrosine, these scenes are quite amusing.
Harlequin is the character of thevaet buffoon. He tries to play comedy, but unlike Cléanthis who takes this situation as a chance to take revenge and reinvent herself, (Chloé Lambert is also in this role, extraordinary, talented, she goes from laughter to tears, and transports us with her emotions). Harlequin doesn't take himself seriously. In the end, he doesn't really betray himself. When he speaks to Euphrosine and her master, he speaks from the heart and it is at this precise moment and only at these moments that he manages to be eloquent and convincing. Mornas plays the soul of a simple man to perfection.
