Spoleto Italy: French Plays, Old and New, in Festival’s First Weekend

[Natasha]

Spoleto Italy: French Plays, Old and New, in Festival's First Weekend

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6/30/2008

"Paul is emotionally devastated. Jean-Louis is then charged with raping a black girl in his class and goes to jail, where he later tells us he is amply punished for his misdeeds by being raped by a black man.
The obviousness of the material is countered by the play's two other characters: the possessive, smothering mothers of the two boys who are played by men in drag — absolutely straightforwardly, with no irony or knowing winks about the incongruity. The villains, it seems, are the unseen fathers. Both survive their ->-bleeped-<- mothers (who become best friends) and their cruel fathers: Paul becomes a busy actor, and Jean-Louis a respectable executive in public works."