Le Faiseur, a Modern Take on Balzac
Picture by David Ospina from the Denise-Pelletier Theatre
Le Faiseur, presented at the Denise-Pelletier Theatre until February 18th, 2023. The play is an adaptation from an Honoré de Balzac text. Gabrielle Chapdelaine reinterprets the famous story of Mercadet’s monetary adventures by reimagining him as a scammer, an investor using his neighbours’ money to fund a shady company that has a 33% interest rate on the returned investment. When the money disappears, his clients force him into hiding, thus showing the cruel nature of the people around him influenced by his greediness.
A central theme is shown through the presence of the three servants working under the Mercadet family. As they narrate the story subtly, the play tries to outline the present class struggles: as the Mercadet family struggles to live without their luxurious needs met nor their rich friends’ entourage, they become even more demanding of their workers who had not been paid in weeks. Furthermore, their revolt against their masters remains unsuccessful as the play finishes in the same state it began: Mercadet receives his money back and the workers keep their small jobs; only the main rebel finds a new job, becoming a scammer, the thing she loathed. It gives for a very unsatisfying ending since everybody is as well off as in the beginning, and none really embraced the moral lesson.
Conserving a simple scene presentation, the actors come in and out of the spotlight through revolving doors, allowing us to see them creeping behind when they are left open, leaving some things unspoken. This adds a dramatic effect when Mercadet thinks his end nears—he will serve time in prison—, since we see the family in front scene disgusted by Mercadet’s cold soul as he agonizes in the background.
Another notable addition is the sound effects added to the character’s actions (for example, each time they served themselves a drink, a “ding” could be heard signifying the clinking glasses or the sound of a cigar being puffed was signified by a “pff”). Although these sounds are tacky and uncomfortable at times, they ground the modern context of the play. Indeed, the modernity of the play also shows in the characters who better reflect contemporary issues: Julie, the daughter of Mercadet, is a raging emo feminist, still unaware of her privilege and how much she needs it. It adds another dimension to these classical archetypes seen in Balzac’s original play culminating into the caricaturist Mercadet, the ultimate 21st Century Faiseur.
Mocking investors, scammers using vulnerable people, geniuses of the Silicon Valley and rich people unaware of the common life, Le Faiseur attempts to communicate the ridicule of this ‘high’ life. “Faiseur” in French means someone who tries to be seen well through fishy practices, tying back in to the unethical values of Mercadet who tries everything to gain back his money: even betraying old friends and selling his daughter to the highest bidder. This is what you will find in Denise-Pelletier’s latest representation.
