«La règle du jeu» and “The Triumph of Love”

Mar 2

I’ll be appearing tomorrow night as the invited speaker at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, following a screening of the 1939 classic film "La Règle du jeu" by director Jean Renoir. Sid Jepsen, the Literary Associate at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, will lead this post-screening discussion on the subject of connections between this film and the 18th century play "The Triumph of Love" (“Le triomphe de l'amour”) by Pierre de Marivaux. The Huntington Theatre is staging a new production of this French classic, performed in English, on their main stage playing March 7 - April 6.

I had the pleasure to attend the opening rehearsal of the production earlier this winter, and was honored to receive the invitation from Sid to participate in this follow-up event. I’ve read the Marivaux play in both French and English, and I spent the weekend reading the chapter about Marivaux in my copy of the anthology “Le théâtre français du XVIIIe siècle”. I also read the dramaturgy research packet prepared by Huntington Theatre’s staff, so I feel I know the theater side of this pretty comfortably. Good thing, since “Le triomphe de l’amour” is also the play I selected for us to read for the March Theater Club at the French Library.

I haven’t seen the Renoir film before, so I’ll imagine I’ll be in the same boat as much of the audience in that regard. I’m looking forward to the discussion — I’ll be curious what I find to say about the comparison…

David Miller, French Theater Project Founder