Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard

Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard ("The Game of Love and Chance") is a three-act romantic comedy by Marivaux (Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, 1688–1763)[1].

The original text

Using stock characters from the Commedia dell'arte, the comedy tells of a young woman is visited by her betrothed, whom she does not know. To get a better idea of the type of person he is, she trades places with her servant and disguises herself. However, unbeknownst to her, her fiancé has the same idea and trades places with his valet. The "game" pits the two false servants against the two false masters, and in the end, the couples fall in love with their appropriate counterpart..

First performed 23 January 1730 by the Comédie Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. Published by Briasson in 1730.

Translations and adaptations

The French play was possibly the source for the 1869 English farcical comedy Checkmate by Andrew Halliday. See Checkmate.

In 1882, Le Truc d' Arthur ("Arthur's trick"), an updated version in three acts of Marivaux's play, was written by Alfred Duru (1829-1889)[2] and Henri Chivot (1830-1897)[3]. See Le Truc d' Arthur

It has been translated in to English a number of times by various authors, usually as The Game of Love and Chance[4] (e.g. by Robert Bethune, Stephen Mulrine, Stephen Wadsworth) Also found as Love in Livery (e.g. performed under this title at the Strand Theatre, London, on 6 July 1857).

The stage text translated into Afrikaans as Die Spel van Liefde en Toeval, by Johann Joubert 1967. Published by DALRO in 1968.

Filmed for French TV in 1954 and again in 1967.

South African performances

1809 Produced in the original French by the local French Amateur Company on 25 March, with Les deux Avares (Fenouillot de Falbaire) as afterpiece.

1967: Produced in Afrikaans as Die Spel van Liefde en Toeval by PACT , directed by Fred Engelen shortly before his death in 1967, with Louis van Niekerk as Mario, Patrick Mynhardt as Pasqual and Marius Weyers as Dorante. The play was presented in a triple bill with Die Burgemeester by Gert Hofmann and Dodedans by August Strindberg.