The Rehearsal

The Count, better known as Tiger, is famous for his spectacular parties. In three days’ time, in his elegant French chateau, his guests are to be treated to an evening of amateur dramatics, complete with lavish Louis XV costumes. The glamorous cast includes Tiger’s mistress, his wife, her lover, and Lucile, the beautiful young governess who looks after the chateau’s twelve resident orphans. But as soon as rehearsals begin it’s clear that this eighteenth-century play will unleash just as much passion, shock and intrigue off stage as it will on. Soon it’s hard to know when the scheming twentieth-century cast are acting and when they’re not. Written in 1950, Anouilh’s savagely funny and devilishly clever comedy is a searing exposure of the characters we adopt, the truths we conceal and the secret roles we most passionately want to play. At its heart is a profound question: what is want to play. At its heart is a profound question: what is performance, and why do we need it?