Les Règles du savoir-vivre dans la société moderne

Les Règles du savoir-vivre dans la société moderne is a text that refers to the major events of life.

It's a rewrite of an authentic manual published at the end of the 19th century. Ironic, offbeat, Jean Luc Lagarce's text plays on customs and habits, the better to mock them.

From the play's opening sentence to the final line, the cycle of life will be unwound, thought through, calculated.
Birth, christening, engagement, wedding, silver wedding, golden wedding, funeral. And...Birth etc...

Our collective imagination is populated with images of festivities and splendor that embroider the reality of a whole historical folklore.
In the great circumstances the recurring or remanent image of the Last Supper: the family gathered, tightened, sometimes recomposed around the table, even if it means forgetting, for the time of the meal, family betrayals and rancors.

So the Table appeared to me inescapable. Very large. Omnipresent.
A scenographic element in its own right, mobile, almost unique.
A pillar of ceremony. More or less lavish. More or less religious.

The show's musical score gives pride of place to a capella voices.
From the beginning to the end of life, from childhood to death, music from multiple origins and eras accompanies the different stages in a woman's life, like so many bursts of laughter or tears.