The Modern Marivaux

By Jim Manganello

***Our January 23rd Translations & Adaptations Play Reading will be Surprised By Love, based on Marivaux's La Seconde Surprise de l'Amour

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux was the child of an administrator in provincial France of the late 17th century. Unlike his predecessor, Moliere, he never achieved success within his lifetime. He was never well-off, he died poor, and little is known of his life—the perfect preconditions for literary obscurity. Therefore the story of Marivaux is the story of his contemporary reception.

Marivaux’s plays were almost immediately buried under the criticism of the prevailing thinkers of his age, the Enlightenment philosophes. To them, Marivaux’s complex language and preference for artificiality over realism—a trait he picked up from the “Italian players” of the Commedia dell’Arte he so loved—seemed like a conservative throwback to the Regency years, an irresponsible celebration of upper-class flirtations and frivolities. The men of the Enlightenment correctly interpreted Marivaux’s theater as one driven by language rather than plot. Voltaire contemptuously coined the term “Marivaudage” to refer to this preference for language as an art in itself, rather than as a useful descriptor of the extensional world. He lambasted Marivaux’s writing as “weighing flies’ eggs on scales made from a spider’s web.” If the criticism wasn’t shellacking enough, Marivaux was finally done in by the French Revolution, behind which he was plastered as a relic of the flippant past.

Marivaux’s excavation didn’t occur until nearly two centuries later, when some of the most forward-thinking French directors of the 1950s—Jean Louis Barrault, Roger Planchon, Patrice Chereau—mounted vibrant and sometimes radical productions of the plays. Actresses were attracted by the plays’ many meaty female roles. Moreover, the very qualities that had prompted Voltaire, et al., to dismiss Marivaux as a fuchsia-tinted loofah appealed to modern directors’ and audiences’ hunger for a darker, more complex approach to love. True, Marivaux’s almost fablistic plots followed almost exclusively the romantic machinations of the well-to-do. Given that milieu, however, his depiction of love is conflicting, political, almost violent. If in Moliere the obstacle to love is almost always some external force (the father-tyrant), Marivaux sought out the internal impediment to love, and his plays are as much about that self-quest as about the entrances and exits of lovers and villains. In that way, Marivaux reaches toward modernity.

Marivaux’s celebration in the English-speaking world was delayed yet another few decades, as most translations had been academic exercises, rather than theatrical projects. That changed in England with some vibrant and witty translations by Neil Bartlett and Timberlake Wertenbaker in the early 90s, and a little later in the States with the enormously well-received work of opera-director Stephen Wadsworth and Paul Schmidt (in collaboration with Dominique Serrand and his Theatre de la Jeune Lune). Other than Serrand’s productions, American attempts at Marivaux have tended to be more conservative than their European counterparts, focusing more on the specific situations of love and heartbreak and less on the political, worldly context. But Marivaux, both in his native tongue and in translation, seems to be constantly reinventing himself, so who knows what his afterlife might become?

Resources:

France, Peter. “Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de (1688-1765).” New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Oxford University Press, 1995.

Kramm, Maggi and Alisa Solomon. “All You Need Is Love.” American Theatre. February 1994: Vol 11, Issue 2.

Solomon, Alisa. “Marivaux our contemporary.” The Village Voice. 21 December 1993

______________________
***

Surprised by Love
January 23, 2011
at 6:30 p.m.
Greenhouse Theater Center

by Dennis Porter
based on the play
La Seconde Surprise de l'Amour by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
Directed by Julieanne Ehre

Featuring Kelsey Brennan, Joe Foust, Linda Gillum, Paul Hurley and Shawn Douglass

The widow of a nobleman and a heartbroken lord—both young and both weary of the disasters love has allotted to them—determinedly embark on a purely platonic friendship. But miscommunication, cross-purposes, and of course sexual attraction threaten their experiment in celibate camaraderie. In a single chateau of early 18th century France, Marivaux examines the tension between truths and ideals in love.

RSVP by emailing rsvp@remybumppo.org or call 773.244.8119.

An invitation from Incoming Artistic Director TIMOTHY DOUGLAS

Greetings ALL ... The Artistic Associates and I are hard at work creating an invigorating bill of plays and events for Remy Bumppo's 2011/2012 Season!

My inaugural season with the company will be a full demonstration of the excellence and integrity you've come to know as worthy of the moniker of ThinkTheatre - along with some augmentation designed to further engage your minds and souls, and which will serve as a meaningful reflection of the transition in leadership.

While I cannot yet reveal the play selections at this time - as we're still very much 'in process' - I wanted to take this opportunity to widen the conversation that surrounds the curiosity and excitement about what happens after the much beloved Founding Artistic Director, James Bohnen, makes his departure. I am deeply aware of just how challenging change of any kind can be, and more specifically of just how dramatic a change can seem when 'the face' that has been associated with an artistic institution for all its existence, moves on and is replaced by another.

I've already had many impassioned discussions surrounding the question of just 'where is Remy Bumppo heading under its new leadership?', and invite you to post your questions and comments here.

And while I acknowledge - for a fair amount of this transition process - we're making it up as we go along, I will respond as candidly as I can.

With the blessings of the season and my best regards ... TIMOTHY DOUGLAS

Share your 'Earnest' thoughts about Wilde!

The Importance of Being Earnest author Oscar Wilde is famous for his crafted one-liners and brilliant witticisms. One of our favorites from the show encompasses our season theme, "The truth is never pure and rarely simple."

We invite you to create and share your own Wilde-style witticism about our production!

Would you rather quip quickly? Give us your cleverest THREE WORDS to describe your experience at our show!

Victorian England: The Emergence of Earnest's Middle Class

from Dramaturg Kelli Marino

Power. Life Style. Wealth. Living Conditions. Religion. Education. Culture.

In a period distinguished by etiquette and social customs, Oscar Wilde wrote his masterful The Importance of Being Earnest. Playing upon the rigid strictures of Victorian classes, Wilde’s Earnest exposes the superficiality of Victorian society, making fun of its people and their customs. He reveals the hypocrisy of the leisured classes, especially scrutinizing those who shunned him.

The Victorian Era (1837-1901) saw the mercantile blossoming of the British Empire. England’s consequent wealth and population boom (a near doubling) precipitated changes within its class system. Class was the chief societal divisor. In a literal sense, London’s wealthy lived on the West End or perhaps in the suburbs, and its working classes lived on the proletarian East End. It is estimated that the aristocracy and the upper classes accounted for two percent of the population, while the working classes accounted for 79%. The remaining 19% was a rather amorphous “middle class” (a term that appeared with increasing frequency), newly invigorated by enterprises associated with the empire’s growth and occupying a less defined space within the English social body. The activities of that middle class, therefore, revolved around self-definition in an attempt to clarify where exactly one fit into the society, domestically and professionally. Because self-definition often involved establishing who one is not, this middle-class surge resulted in manufactured social clashes and the urge to stubbornly display the life that was available to us and not to them.

Love it or hate it, this middle class has been cast as the heart of Victorian society. In the middle class, one can find the full spectrum of dominant social movements. It pushed for reforming the class system (out of disdain either for the depraved aristocracy or the depraved proletariat) as well as enshrining the prestige of their own class. In its ambition to thrive, it created more opportunities for itself in work, ornamented its surroundings with parks, facilities for mental enhancement, and clubs for leisure activities.

The middle class contained a gradation of prosperity within itself. The upper-middle class (the group of Lady Bracknell, Algernon, and Jack) consisted of industrialists, lawyers, doctors, clergy, headmasters, and some theater managers/owners (Arthur Sullivan and William Schwenk Gilbert made fortunes from their shows and received knighthoods). Many members of this class bought their way into their positions through memberships to clubs, land ownership and political affiliations.

As a member of the upper-middle class, much of one’s activity followed from the desire to elevate oneself as high as possible and to establish a social network that disallowed the entry of the lesser middle-class peoples. Social lists like Who’s Who (first published in 1849) and Burkes Landed Gentry (first published in 1836) informed the social elite of whom it was important to identify and associate.

This elitism and emphasis on social strictures has become especially associated with England’s upper-middle class women (perhaps in no small part because of Earnest’s and more particularly Bracknell’s popularity). Strict guidelines from women of manners like Mrs. Humphry and Lady Collin Campbell dictated the moral etiquette of the Victorian Age. Women took very seriously, the art of being a proper lady, playing the part of the Victorian woman and helping those around her adhere to the guidelines that she, and the etiquette journals, deemed appropriate.

Maintaining the supposedly “determined order”—which was actually being fashioned and re-fashioned as time went on—fueled England’s upper-middle class to perform at its highest caliber. This group, whose lifestyle and reputations were constantly on display, was forced to conceal their private lives (if they had one) in hopes that there might be no consequences. For Wilde, whose private life, once made public, caused him great grief, Earnest was a way to express his frustration with the people of his class, safely and publicly. Earnest, then, attacks—both lovingly and viciously—the obsession with the public presentation of the self that formed the core of middle-class Victorian England.

Share your thoughts on Night and Day

Our 2010 / 2011 Season is underway with Night and Day, the inaugural play that began the company 14 seasons ago.

We've already heard that "this multifaceted drama poses questions that easily might be asked at any point in the current 24/7 news cycle" (Chicago Sun-Times) and that the "production is not only shrewdly timed but very adroit, smart and accomplished." (Chicago Tribune)


Now we wanted to give you the opportunity to share your own reviews, questions and comments about this play and production.

Consider these questions raised by the play:
• What risks and responsibilities should journalists to take today?
• How do you choose which news sources are trustworthy?
• Is "fluff" news crucial to keeping papers around or does it undermine the credibility of the "real" stories?

Stoppard's Night and Day features a young journalist caught in a very dangerous and politically charged story. He puts his life at risk, perhaps unknowingly, to get his hands on the best story. Stoppard's work feels as timely as ever in the light of news from Mexico.

As reported by huffingtonpost.com, on 9/17/10:

On September 16th, two newspaper photographers were killed by gunmen in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog group cited in our previous post, said in a recent report that at least 22 Mexican journalists have been killed since December 2006, due to violence by drug cartels.

As reported by CNN.com on 9/20/10:

In response to the murder of their young photographers, the paper for which they worked took bold action, publishing an open letter to the drug cartels operating in their city.

"We do not want more deaths," the newspaper's letter to the cartels said Sunday. "We do not want more injuries or even more intimidation. It is impossible to exercise our role in these conditions. Tell us, then, what do you expect of us as a medium?"

However, the deaths may not have been a result of the photographers' work, but rather a personal matter. A Chihuahua state attorney's office spokesman stated, "His murder is not related to his work as a journalist."

************

Faced with great risk and great responsibility, this paper took bold action, directly addressing very subject of the news which they actively report. What does their appeal say about evolving roles of journalists in today's world? Do we consider the risks these reporters are taking to be crucial to good news?

Journalists on the Front Lines

Stoppard's Night and Day raises complex questions about the need for risk in pursuit of headline news. When an investigative journalist's life is in endangered, is it needless, or crucial to the system of the free press getting the truth back home?

In October, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released an updated version of its guide to reporting on war and in other situations in which journalists’ lives can be threatened. The handbook is called “On Assignment: A Guide to Reporting in Dangerous Situations,” and what follows are excerpts taken from its various sections.

From Part II: Who is at Risk?
"Even all the risks of reporting in a conflict zone comprise only a small part of the risks journalists face worldwide. In fact, for every journalist killed in crossfire, three are targeted for murder. Between 1993 and 2002, CPJ research indicates that 366 journalists have been killed while conducting their work; of that total, 60 journalists, or 16 percent, died in crossfire, while 277 journalists, or 76 percent, were murdered in reprisal for their reporting. The remaining journalists were killed on the job in other situations, such as violent street demonstrations.”

From Part IV: Reporting in Hostile Areas: Minimizing Risks
"In some particularly dangerous conflicts, journalists have hired armed guards. The practice first became widespread among television crews and reporters covering Somalia in the early 1990’s after journalists traveling without armed guards were robbed at gunpoint. Journalists who use armed guards, however, should recognize that they may be jeopardizing their status as neutral observers."

From Part IV: Reporting in Hostile Areas: Battlefield Choices


"From at least the U.S. Civil War through the first two world wars, journalists who accompanied combatants were only able to file reports through military censors."

“Journalists briefly enjoyed more autonomy during the Korean War, although it was not until the Vietnam War that many correspondents were able to file without censorship."

Read more excerpts at

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100972