Theatre
The Island of Slaves
L'Île des esclaves
Opening lines
Iphicrate
Arlequin !
Harlequin!
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from fr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
After a shipwreck, two Athenian masters, Iphicrate and Euphrosine, wash up with their slaves, Arlequin and Cléanthis, on an island where former slaves have given themselves their own laws. Trivelin, who governs the island, tells them the rule of the place: for three years, masters and servants exchange their names, their clothes and their conditions, so that the former may mend their ways. Now masters, the valets paint before their former masters a portrait of their vanity and their failings.
Context
The comedy, in one act and eleven scenes, in prose, was first performed on Monday 5 March 1725 at the Hôtel de Bourgogne by the Comédiens-Italiens, who had returned to settle in Paris in 1716. Its device draws on the Roman Saturnalia, festivals in which masters and slaves exchanged roles for a time, and on the literary tradition of utopias: the reversal of conditions is presented there as a lesson administered to the masters rather than as a mere farce.
Who it is for
A short play, in a single act, which can be read in under an hour and requires no preparation.
Prizes and reception
A comedy in which Harlequin's comic touch sits alongside accents close to tragedy, against a backdrop of social satire.
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