CARCASSONNE
A beloved comedian and major figure of French cinema, Jean-Paul Rouve takes on one of Molière’s greatest masterpieces in a lively and joyful version of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, which will find its full resonance at the Château Comtal.
Created in 1670 for the court of Louis XIV, this comedy-ballet blends theatre, music, and dance. Beneath the appearance of a baroque and musical farce, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme portrays the illusions of a wealthy bourgeois fascinated by the nobility. In an attempt to enter this idealized world, he surrounds himself with masters of various disciplines — dance, music, fencing, philosophy — and becomes prey to flatterers and impostors. In a whirlwind of misunderstandings, arranged marriages, and scenes inspired by the Orient, the play humorously explores the boundaries between social classes, the power of appearances, and the ridiculousness of ambition.
Director’s note
Jérémie Lippmann – Stage Director
This Bourgeois Gentilhomme celebrates comedy and the sheer pleasure of performance. From satire to farce, it makes laughter a vehicle for both enjoyment and reflection. The staging will draw on the entertaining ambiguity of spectacle — both delightful and disorienting. It amuses even as it misleads, enlightens even as it distracts. With a sustained rhythm, strongly defined and vividly embodied characters follow one another, sweeping the audience into a succession of grotesque situations. Comedy thus acts as a jubilant veil, concealing a theatre of illusions and false appearances.
Conceived as an arena, the stage space evokes both a circus ring and the carousel of appearances. Each character will step in, one after another, to present their act and defend their interests. This infernal circle accelerates as the scenes unfold. The set evolves and transforms, mirroring the protagonist’s growing blindness. The costumes, faithful to the era of the play, embody the disguises, ambitions, and lies of those who wear them. At times finery, at times costume, they lie at the heart of the collective deception.
Music, omnipresent, draws its baroque foundations from Lully. It too plays a double game: it guides, suggests, betrays, and unleashes comedy. At key moments, it escapes the 17th century and shifts toward more contemporary sounds, highlighting through contrast the absurdity — or modernity — of the situations. The ballets accompany these compositions, intensifying the frenzy and exaltation of ridicule, where the body expresses what words conceal. They push Monsieur Jourdain’s illusions of grandeur to their peak.
Through him, Molière paints a world where appearances, language, and manners become objects of desire as much as mockery. The famous revelation about prose is both comic and touching:
“And the way we speak — what is that then?”
“Prose.”
“What? When I say: ‘Nicole, bring me my slippers and give me my nightcap,’ that’s prose?”
“Yes, sir.”
This candid discovery — “By my faith, I’ve been speaking prose for more than forty years without knowing it!” — becomes the symbol of the gap between what one is and what one believes oneself to be.
By combining baroque aesthetics with contemporary echoes, this exhilarating production aims to make the pleasure of theatre resonate in all its sensory and critical richness. A complete show — at once funny, cruel, and dazzling — in which everyone may recognize a little of their own comedy.
