In The Triumph of Love, Princess Phocion (often called Leonid in English translations), whose family usurped a throne rightly due Agis, comes to set things right and immediately also falls in love with him. That she and her maid Hermidas pose as young men makes the task easier but the love matches (maid falls for Arlequin) harder. Then there's stoic Hermocrate (aptly stern Bernard Lavalette), Agis' uncle and Leontine's brother, who's kept them studying philosophy in a loveless state on a romance-banned estate.
From the moment Phocion (jaunty Marie Piton) descends on a rope ladder into the garden (represented mainly by a row of plants in huge pots), it's clear she's going to color the grey-beige white of the scene and tailored dress of everyone appearing in it. Handsome Benjamin Penamaria's Agis is smitten with the "boy" from the get-go but has been so sheltered from the idea of romantic love that he isn't worried about homosexuality. Leontine (heavyset, heavy-toned Marie Claude Mestral) is upset yet falls for disguised Phocion, who leads on both her and her brother. (He has seen her remove her jacket to reveal a well filled haltered blouse).
The siblings are so stiff and self-righteous, Phocion's duplicity doesn't seem as unsympathetic as it might. The low life comedy between Arlequin, who obviously owes much of the fun he raises to commedia ancestry, and gardener Dimas (a philosopher in his own right) is funnier than in the English adaptations I've seen of Marivaux's play. Perhaps it's because neither acts oafish.
Lighting and music subtly reflect changes in action and mood. On the night I attended, a drunken disturber in the audience failed to fluster the actors. It drew a well received rebuke from Bernard Lavalette stepping downstage and seemed right in character with his portrayal of Hermocrate.
