theatre Review: A door must be open or shut | King's Head Theatre | Tartuffe Productions

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The Review - THEATRE by SONIA ZHURAVLYOVA
Published: 7 May 2009

Open and shut case of l’amour

A DOOR MUST BE OPEN OR SHUT
King's Head Theatre

IN Tartuffe Productions’ jubilant revival of Alfred De Musset’s 1845 comedy of manners, Thomas Arnold’s Baron tries to make love to Jessica Sarrion’s Marquise.
Set in a fashionable and intimate Parisian parlour, the lovelorn Baron’s attempts to woo her are met with rebuffs and sighs of ennui.
“Mon Dieu, you’re going to make a speech!” she huffs.
Indeed, what she would rather have is not pretty speeches but some straight talking.
In this quick-witted vignette, lasting all of an hour, De Musset pitches two sharp minds against each other, with Arnold and Sarrion delivering their lines with charm and perfect comic timing.
De Musset draws out the power games the sexes play while courting and they all ring true because, funnily enough, these games are still played out today.
The Marquise sighs at the banality of her suitors and the expectation that she should take their compliments at face value, while constantly reminding the Baron to shut her parlour door.
The Baron doesn’t get the hint straight away, but bangs on about l’amour.
Amid the battle of wits, De Musset waggles his finger at his Parisian contemporaries; dandy Barons and ladies of leisure whose only concern was which ball to attend would have been his audience, and they would have appreciated the jibes at their own gossipy nature. The Marquise accuses the Baron of “dining” with chorus girls, while he tells her there are rumours she will marry an elderly neighbour.
But the maxim of the play is clear: don’t skirt the subject of love, you’re either in or you’re out and the (parlour room) door behind you must be open or shut and nothing in between.
Until May 24
0844 412 2953

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