Don’t Fool With Love / The Blind Men

Don’t Fool With Love /
The Blind Men

Written by Alfred de Musset / Michel de Ghelderode
Translated by Declan Donnellan
Performed in English
1993

Don’t Fool with Love

On ne Badine pas avec L’amour, or Don’t Fool with Love, was first performed in Paris on 18 November 1861, in a version which eliminated most of the play’s language that was deemed to be ‘irreligious.’ It was not until 8January 1923 that Musset’s original text was reinstated by the French National Theatre.

Eighteen-year-old Camille has returned from the convent where the nuns have taught her to mistrust men. Perdican, having recently received his PhD, returns to his father’s home. The childhood friends, separated for over ten years, meet again in the Baron’s castle. The Baron decides that it is certain that the young pair shall marry.

Yet, it is not love that dominates this play, it is pride. Love is overshadowed in Musset’s drama of secrecy, abandonment and separation and, in its place, lies vanity, anger and tragedy. Mussett’s play dramtises the risks and penalties that await those who meddle in the affairs of the heart without considering the consequences, bringing its audience to a shattering and fatal conclusion…

The Blind Men

The Blind Men was written by the most powerful Belgian playwright of the inter-war years. Haunted by death, god and the erotic, Michel de Ghelderode’s work is similar to that of the playwrights of the Theatre of Cruelty and of the Absurd.

Les Aveugles, or The Blind Men, was written in French and was first performed in Paris in July 1956. His plays are based on the Bible, folklore and history, and his work is frequently set in medieval Flanders.

The play was inspired by the work of the Belgian artist Pieter Breughel, whose painting ‘The Parable of the Blind Men’ (1568), with its sorrowful tone and depiction of six blind men leading each other, was described by Ghelderode as having left him ‘…with so intense a recollection that after many years, in 1933, I transported this touching pictorial anecdote to the theatre, in a few short hours and with great ease.’

Produced by Cheek by Jowl. The first performances were given at the Arts Centre, University of Warwick on 17th Feburary 1993.

“…wonderfully light and fluid…Donnellan and Ormerod create an unencumbered atmosphere in which the pantomimic and the piercing tumble over each other.”
The Independent

Cast

Name	Character
David Foxxe	Father Blasius / De Witte
Anne White	Dame Pluche
Colin McFarlane	The Baron / Den Os
Brian Pettifer	Father Bridlaine / De Strop
Michael Sheen	Perdican / Lamprido
Maria Miles	Camille
Pooky Quesnel	Rosette
Patrick Bridgman	Peasant

Creative Team

Role	Name
Director	Declan Donnellan
Designer	Nick Ormerod
Composer and MD	Paddy Cunneen
Movement Director	Jane Gibson
Lighting Designer	Judith Greenwood
Voice Coach	Patsy Rodenburg
Fight Director	John Waller
Assistant to the Director	Lucy Astor
Company Stage Manager	Tom Albu
Deputy Stage Manager	Michele Enright
Assistant Stage Manager	Becca Clay
Wardrobe Manager	Alistair McArthur

Previous Performances

Date (first performance)	Location	No. of performances
20 April 1993	London, Donmar Warehouse, UK	27
16 April 1993	Leiden, Leidse Schouwburg, Holland	1
15 April 1993	Amsterdam, Stadsschouwburg, Holland	1
15 April 1993	Groningen, Stadsschouwburg, Holland	1
10 April 1993	Bergen Op Soom, Schouwburg De Maggd, Holland	1
8 April 1993	Utrecht, Stadsschouwburg, Holland	1
7 April 1993	Den Bosch, Schouwburg Het Casino, Holland	1
6 April 1993	Venlo, Cultural Centre de Maasport, Holland	1
5 April 1993	Arnhem, Stadsschouwberg, Holland	1
30 March 1993	Hexham, Queens Hall Arts Centre, UK	5
23 March 1993	Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal, UK	5
16 March 1993	Worthing, Connaught Theatre, UK	6
9 March 1993	Winchester, Theatre Royal, UK	6
23 February 1993	Cambridge, Cambridge Arts Centre, UK	6
17 February 1993	Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre, UK	4

Reviews

“Wonderfully light and fluid…Donnellan and Ormerod create an unencumbered atmosphere in which the pantomimic and the piercing tumble over each other.”
The Independent