Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard

Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard is a play by Pierre Carlet de Marivaux. De Marivaux wrote it in 1730. The title translates to "The game of love and chance". It is a comedy in three acts.

Illustration for the play, by Bertall, 19th century.

The play makes use of stock characters from the Commedia dell'arte. In this play, Arlequin is featured. Lisette, who appears in other Marivaux plays, also takes on a stock personality as the feisty servant.

The play is performed regularly, in France. There are several movies, both for television, as well as the cinema.

Summary

At that time, arranged marriages were common. Especially the women did not know the man they would be married to. In this play, a young woman is visited by her fiancé, 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. Her fiancé has the same idea and also 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.