Quartett

A show by Franck Dimech, presented by Cie Le Théâtre de Ajmer. In 2003 in Marseille, Franck Dimech directed Heiner Müller's Quartett at the Théâtre de Lenche, a text adapted from Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos, with actor Maurice Vinçon. Twenty-four years later, the director reunites with this essential 87-year-old Marseille artist to recreate the play. To compose Quartett, Müller retained only the four main characters: Merteuil, Valmont, Tourvel and Cécile de Volanges. In Franck Dimech's production, they have become old, hideous, dirty and mean. With waxen complexions and faces made up like prostitutes escaped from an Otto Dix painting, their hearts have become stone and their souls unfathomable frozen lakes, but their conscience remains intact. Atro­ciously sharp. Like Jean Genet's The Maids, the theater here is a game of mirrors in which roles are interchangeable. The show is their last evening, the terminal phase of their relationship. “Dead, dead, dead,” they cry! Text: Quartett, Heiner Müller, Éditions de Minuit, translated by Jean JOURDHEUIL and Béatrice PERREGAUX Directed by Franck Dimech With Marcelle Basso and Maurice Vinçon