Twenty years after the previous production of Les Fourberies de Scapin, Denis Podalydès opened the 2017/2018 season with this major work by Molière, which has been performed more than 1,500 times by the Comédiens-Français. “A troupe play, written not for the Court but for the people”, it premiered in 1671 at the Palais-Royal during a period of construction work. For this play, Molière wished to free himself of the constraints of comédies-ballets and machinery-driven comedies and come back to “pure theatre”, thus offering the director a great freedom.
The action is set in Naples, opening a door onto an imagined maritime world stretching towards the Orient. Faced with two authoritarian fathers, two sons, both of whom are thwarted lovers, turn to the crafty Scapin, who is driven by a mad desire for revenge. The character is a double of Scaramouche, the Italian actor of the adventurous life whom Molière admired: “to tell you the truth, there are few things that are impossible for me, when I put my mind to them”, declares the buffoonish servant whose name, as Denis Podalydès points out, derives his from the Italian scappare which means “to escape”, “to scamper off”. Scapin is beaten with a stick at one point but also gets his own back and, in an ambiance of ransom demands and paternal contradictions, he comes up with an avalanche of stratagems and other tricks Molière excells in depicting. After more than three months of touring France in the autumn, the production is returning to the Salle Richelieu.

On Tour
In France SEPT > DEC 2018

— Découvrez la collection des produits inspirés par la pièce à la Boutique

ON 24 MAY 1671, Molière premiered his new play, Les Fourberies de Scapin (Scapin the Schemer), which was poorly received by the Parisian public. This highly surprising failure was in fact due to circumstance: the Palais Royal theatre was in the middle of an interminable renovation with a view to staging the sumptuous “highlight” of the season, Psyché, which the court had already had the privilege of discovering and which Paris was impatiently awaiting.

One has to wonder then: was the purpose of the play simply to keep audiences occupied while they waited for the much anticipated tragedy-ballet? In performance terms, however, Scapin clearly had the makings of a great spectacle, with Molière himself playing the title role. La Thorillière as a “furious rapier-wielder”, and Mademoiselle Beauval as Zerbinette contributed just as significantly: indeed the latter was known for her infectious, booming laugh, and the author composed the role with her in mind. But as Boileau commented, the play disappointed lovers of “charming comedies”, no doubt for being too close in spirit to the commedia dell’arte. Conceived with an economy of means for a staging that requires neither imposing sets nor machines, it is very likely that the play appeared too simple to contemporaries and out of step with the new vogue for entertainments featuring singing and dancing.

In short, it was too pure a form of theatre, lacking in embellishments.

As is often the case, future success proved contemporary tastes wrong, since, after the author’s death, the play went on to become a huge hit. Today, it is one of the most frequently staged plays in the French Repertoire, including abroad. On 20 September 2017, on the opening night of Denis Podalydès’ new staging, the Comédiens-Français will have performed it 1,495 times since 1680.

• Visual: Les Fourberies de Scapin by Devéria, [1831] – Photo. Lorette

Directed by: Denis Podalydès
Scenography: Éric Ruf
Costumes: Christian Lacroix
Lights: Stéphanie Daniel
Sounds: Bernard Valéry
Make-up: Véronique Soulier-Nguyen
Collaboration: Leslie Menu
Assistant stage manager: Alison Hornus
Assistant scenography: Dominique Schmitt