It is surprising that the
English-speaking world première of Eugène Scribe's 1828
comedy
Le mariage d'argent
takes place only now. Surely someone must have spotted its potential as
a
Zeitgeist-capturing piece
during the acquisitive heyday of the 1980s. Or possibly not, since it
may have been hidden amid the works of the most prolific playwright in
history: Scribe had seen more than 400 of his plays, vaudevilles and
opera libretti produced by his death in 1861. Moreover,
Golden Opportunities (as the play
is entitled in Anthony Curtis's eminently playable English version)
does not exactly toe the "greed is good" party line. What is
particularly impressive, and consistently fascinating, is its blend of
the standard confections of romantic comedy – rivalries, confusions,
misunderstandings and concealments – with an utterly unsentimental
acknowledgement that wealth can be at least as much of a driving force,
and at least as fulfilling a goal, as love.
The financially embarrassed Poligni is torn between his long-lost
sweetheart, the now widowed and not by any means comfortably off Madame
de Brienne, and his stockbroker friend Dorbeval's vacuous but heavily
dowried ward. The third in the male trio, rising painter Olivier, is
also in love with Mme de Brienne; meanwhile, Dorbeval's wife has been
flirting more than is good for her, and when a too-fervent letter for
her arrives and Mme de Brienne pretends that
she was its addressee... well,
unsurprisingly, entanglements ensue. Yet throughout, Poligni's
sought-for half-million is as much an imperative as any calling of the
heart. Roger Ringrose's Dorbeval may be much dimmer at people than at
money, but neither trait is culpable: his financial acuity is at the
service of people he cares for. Max Digby and Fliss Walton as Poligni
and Mme de Brienne have to ride more switchbacks of fortune and emotion
than can comfortably be handled, and Sioned Jones as Mme Dorbeval has
wonderfully expressive eyes. There is a happy ending of a sort, but the
predictable
deus ex machina
does not by any means produce the expected resolution. Still, as the
saying goes, money doesn't buy happiness, but it enables you to be
unhappy in comfort.
Written for the Financial Times.