The Game of Love and Chance

Synopsis

Marivaux's 1730 comedy. Silvia’s father, Mr Prowde, is keen to marry her off - and has invited an eligible young bachelor to the family home for the weekend. However, Dorant, the beau in question, has decided that he’d like to take a look at his intended in disguise - and so swaps places with his manservant. Unbeknownst to him, though, Silvia has had a similar idea - and exchanges clothes with her maid.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 15 April 2011

The news that artistic director Philip Wilson is to leave the Salisbury Playhouse after four successful years coincides with his fine revival of Marivaux’s 18th century The Game of Love and Chance.

This smart and witty translation, by Neil Bartlett, was set in the 1930s when premiered at National Theatre in 1993; Wilson opts for the 1960s in a dusty blue, mildly palatial setting by Tom Rogers inhabited by characters who look as though they’re on their way to Swinging London.

We are, indeed, supposed to be in the country (I once saw a Parisian production with live sheep), but it never feels like it, the one big fault I can find. Otherwise, the show is a delight of civilised cross talk and palpitating emotions as two couples – one aristocratic, one plebeian – get their co-habiting plans and social standing in a twist.

In the first place, Silvia has been allotted to the dashing Mr Dorant by her father. Dorant ar...

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