In 1993, Jacques Lassalle, then Administrateur général of the Comédie-Française, inaugurated the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier with two plays by Nathalie Sarraute: Elle est là and Le Silence. This season, Clément Hervieu-Léger, the new Administrateur général, brings this major twentieth-century author into the Repertoire. Following a series of large-scale productions, notably on the stage of the Salle Richelieu, he has chosen for C'est beau the intimate setting of the Studio-Théâtre — the stage where he directed his first production with the company in 2011.

The play centres on a couple whose conversation stalls in the presence of their son: the father and mother find themselves unable to say "It’s beautiful" as they contemplate a work of art. The subject is less art itself than the generational and linguistic gulf that separates parents from children. While the comedy takes aim at paternal excess and maternal guilt in equal measure, the crisis at hand seems all the more absurd for the son's disconcerting composure.

First performed on radio in 1972, the play combines the art of repartee with situational comedy. As Clément Hervieu-Léger notes, Nathalie Sarraute's goldsmith-like precision as a writer enables a performance approach of great lightness, while raising profound questions about the family unit, the value of words, and the evolution of language.

Casting in progress