Enigma Variations – Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Who do we love when we love? Do we ever know who our loved one is? Is a shared love nothing but a fortunate misunderstanding?

Two men clash over these eternal mysteries of love: Abel Znorko, a Nobel laureate for literature, who lives a reclusive life on an island to the north of Norway, with coke, alcohol and other psychotropic substances, brooding about his passion for a woman with whom he has engaged in a lengthy correspondence, and Erik Larsen, a journalist who comes to meet the writer on the pretext of interviewing him. But what is his ulterior motive? What is his secret link with the woman Znorko says he is still in love with? And why has this cantankerous misanthropist, with his black glasses, silk dressing gown and gun in hand, agreed to see him?

So begins a true game of cat and mouse, where the truth, cruel and tortuous, is revealed as the plot unfolds and revelations are hurled back and forth, the suspense handled skilfully.

Direction

Paul-Emile Fourny

Featuring

Hugo Becker and Pierre Rochefort

Technicians

Set designer & lighting design: Patrick Méeüs

Costumes: Dominique Louis

Production

Théâtre Rive Gauche and Opéra Théâtre de l’Eurométropole de Metz

Co-produced by: Théâtre du Chêne Noir

Approximate running time: 1h20 without intermission