Le Côté de Guermantes ・ Comédie-Française

For his first collaboration with the Comédie-Française, Christophe Honoré brings to the stage the third volume of the seven that make up In Search of Lost Time, which Proust began writing in 1913.

The Narrator moves with his family to Paris, to live in an apartment in the Hôtel de Guermantes, whose salon he dreams of attending. The Guermantes family own a castle near Combray where he already had the occasion to admire the portrait of the Duchess Oriane, a figure he has become fascinated with. The director shows that this volume is first and foremost the incarnation of an aristocratic family name, beyond reach but then suddenly accessible to this young man endowed with an extraordinary power of seduction. Describing a farewell to childhood and the discovery of amorous illusions, this book – whose action is partly set around the Théâtre Marigny – is also a rare account of the bonds of friendship forged between the Narrator and the Dreyfus supporter Saint-Loup.
Christophe Honoré, who notably brought an adaptation of La Princesse de Clèves to the screen in La Belle Personne and recently directed his own play Les Idoles, is aware of how literature resists attempts at illustrative adaptations, but also how it comes to life when it is deployed in the present time. The extravagance of this work, in his view, lies in the sensation that we are discovering something “absolutely familiar” to our lives, causing a shock to the system for the reader, which Honoré makes into the vanishing point of his theatrical project.

Creative team

Devised and staged by: Christophe Honoré
Scenography: Alban Ho Van and Ariane Bromberger
Costumes: Pascaline Chavanne
Light design: Dominique Bruguière
Sound: Pierre Routin
Choreographic work: Marlène Saldana
Makeup: Vesna Peborde
Stage manager assistant: Aurélien Gschwind and Sébastien Lévy
Costume assistant: Claire Fayel, costumière de l’académie de la Comédie-Française
Lights assistant: Nicolas Faucheux and Pierre Gaillardot

Calendar