Les Règles du savoir-vivre dans la société moderne

The theater of Jean-Luc Lagarce is a theater that upsets the order of things. A demanding, surprising style of writing that disturbs even the order of words. A contemporary play that asks uncompromising questions: "Should we pretend or should we live our own lives?" This is what Les Règles du savoir-vivre dans la société moderne is all about... with elegance, humor and intelligence.

Une dame comme il faut lays down "scientific" guidelines for behavior on every important occasion in life, from birth to marriage and death. An enunciation for a true denunciation of the rules of the social game, of this "prêt à penser" of security.

Implacably, everyone is led to question and perhaps reinvent their codes of life. In this sense, it seems important to me to give this piece a hearing. Because it intrinsically possesses an exceptional driving and subversive force. Maybe that's what theater is all about.

Vincent Ecrepont. February 1999