The Game of Love and Chance, by Pierre Marivaux

This is an excerpt from the full-length DVD available through Amazon.com and on FreshwaterSeas.com. In this short clip from our DVD of the classic French comedy, Sylvia discovers who her lover Dorante really is! As the play begins, Sylvia is distraught. As her maid, Lisette, struggles to dress her and arrange her hair, Sylvia tries to think through her problem--what is she to do about a husband? She is very, very doubtful about marriage; the marriages she can observe, in her strictly limited circle, are not happy ones. The men do not show their true faces; they hide behind masks, and the masks they show to the world are deeply fraudulent: the civil, polite, polished gentleman abroad is a silent, bitter, harsh and unloving figure in the home. Lisette does not bother her head about all this; she simply dreams of a man--almost any man! Orgon brings the news to his daughter that he has arranged a marriage for her, but despite her immediate fears, he assures her that he does not mean to force anything upon her: if she does not like the young man, it's over, no more to be said. He has invited the young man to visit. That's when Sylvia has her idea. She asks her father to allow her to change places with her maid, so that she can observe the young man, Dorante, when his guard is down. Her father is surprised, but he loves a good intrigue, and he is even more taken with Sylvia's idea because he knows--as she does not--that Dorante has asked to do the same thing: he will arrive disguised as his servant, Arlequin, and his servant will be disguised as Dorante. Dorante's father has advised Orgon of this in a letter, unbeknownst to any of the young people. Orgon spills the beans to his son, Mario, and Mario is delighted to have the chance to wreak havoc in the whole affair. There is a great deal of comedy that comes out of the working-out of all this intrigue, but along the way, something really rather serious happens: both Sylvia and Dorante find themselves fallling very deeply in love with someone they believe is completely unsuitable--a mere servant. As they reveal more and more of their feelings, they become more and more upset by it, and more and more afraid for their own happiness and, to their credit, the happiness of the other person. Finally, Dorante can stand it no longer. He is an honest man, and will not deceive someone he cares deeply about. But when he does so, he runs into something else: the fact that none of these people can resist a good masquerade. And shortly thereafter, she takes pity on him and reveals herself to him. Meanwhile, the servants, who both think the other to be noble, have been going through the same process! And the play unwinds in a delightful scene of reconcilation, leading to a dance finale.

YouTube | February 18, 2008