On ne badine pas avec l'amour
(No Trifling With Love)

By Alfred de Musset
translated by Alvin Epstein

Produced: April, 1994
Bridgewater State College
Director: Suzanne Ramczyk
Scenery: Arthur Dirks
Facility:Campus Center Auditorium
Notes:

This was a warmly Romantic work with substantial restaging by the director with many Commedia elements. A chorus of townfolk built a theatre-like context for the production. The locations were general - the square, the court, a prinicipal's home, etc.

The production faced the audience seated on 3 sides on stage with the performance. The backdrop was interior or exterior with the drawing of the white curtain or exposing the spattered drop. The curving ramp to the upstage platform provided an upstage and downstage space, some elevation upstage, a path, a seat, and divided the space as needed. The face of the platform is very wood-like wood, and the "brick" face of the ramp is homosote. At one point there was a white brick fountain or well that straddled the edge of the ramp. I had deliberately deconstructed it a little, but the effect made no sense in a decidedly pre-modern rather than postmodern show. Still there are the self-conscious changes in brickwork and the theatrical swag over the exterior background. Anything for a bit more interest.