Rules for Good Maners in the Modern World

Legarce's Rules of Good Behavior in the Modern World is a funny, relevant and subversive play, both in form and content. As such, it challenges the theoretical states of consciousness conveyed in life and theater.

This is the paradox to be explored: the celebration of life through social order and good manners, while exposing the doubt and ambiguity that are masked by strict conventions. It's a perfect subject for theater.

Our modern consumerist world yearns for a very specific set of rules, because life itself is not lived but consumed. This world needs an instruction manual, a how-to book, a kind of "life for dummies". Lagarce's heroine, a fragrant priestess of good manners and social rules, offers us such a treasure, not without a delicate cruelty.

Although written as a monologue, the play offers ample ground for a broader staging. The atmosphere of an event - not necessarily the conference - is at the heart of Lagarce's idea. The potential to transform the narrated ceremonies of birth, marriage and burial into a series of exciting scenes with perhaps several actors will be my starting point for staging the rules..