Diphtong

A new stage
In the development of Hubert Colas’ career, the production of Mariage is the first work he had directed that is not his own, having staged his own plays for eight years. Witold Gombrowicz’ writing, which views the totally impossible idea of being fulfilled as ridiculous, propels Colas into a new line of imagination for his work. This evolution brings with it new meetings encounters and collaborations . Hubert Colas’ interest in the force of bodies that are entangled in an irrational search, lends a new and particular resonance in this production.

Formal Mass

A tragic yet comic perspective on the cruelty of youth, the play Mariage forms the strange dream of a young man, Henri, who is both a soldier and crown price to an imaginary throne. The young man fabricates his life and beliefs as a language of his own grows with words and situations he chooses to follow and believe in, but which sweep him along in a mixture of contradictory and bewitching energies.

Witold Gombrowicz’s writing can be seen as a macabre dance, making the world’s existence seem farcical. God, power, and death are transformed at the mercy of Henry’s encounters and desires. His life bears witness to the wanderings of not just one young man but a whole generation : a lack of future, ideology, and belief instill in him the desire to ‘become his own God’. By imposing his vision of the world on those around him, and furthermore, encouraged by the feeling of divine strength he has been blessed with, Henri allows the most tragic figures of totalitarianism to take hold of him.

Approaching the end of the century, we are not comforted with the prospect of a flourishing future. Man has lost his political belief and fundamental values in a society in which the economy sleeps around with the internationalist thoughts of Liberalism : and the old fears of our ancestors are returning. Can the European man of 2000 prepare himself against these new totalitarian fears ? When politics dies, around us begins the original pure rejoice of territorialism.

Written at the end of the 40s, Mariage questions the existence of a young being, living between two epoques after the rise of Nazism. It questions, within its time, the existence of new beliefs in governing both man and the world. Hearing and listening to this play at the end of the century today, now begs us to examine the dark forces that reveal themselves around us every day, as well as the absence of new ideology, philosophy or belief in the years to come.

Hubert COLAS

Director, set design : Hubert COLAS

With : Boris LEMANT, Marie-Paule LAVAL, Thierry RAYNAUD, Pierre LANEYRIE, Peggy PENEAU, Angela KONRAD, Anne-Claude GOUSTIAUX, Virgile COIGNARD, Franck MANZONI, Sophie DELAGE and the artistic collaboration of Alain GAUTRE who did sterling work leading rehearsals for the clowning and jester parts.

Lighting : Pascale BONGIOVANNI - Hubert COLAS

Musical Composition : Jean-Marc MONTERA

Costumes : Cidalia DA COSTA