"Les Palmes de Monsieur Schutz" by Jean-Noël Fenwick

We are privileged to have the possibility to stage the play in London.

"Les Palmes de Monsieur Schutz" by Jean-Noël Fenwick, picturing the life of Marie Curie won 4 Molières prizes and was also made as a movie (with Isabelle Huppert) w1997

"Les Palmes de M Schutz" by Jean-Noël Fenwick, adapted by Ron Clark

 

The play is a humorous exploration of the inter-relationships of the characters, something of a French romantic comedy with a strong dose of scientific joi de vivre.  Surprisingly, it has never previously been performed in the UK

The setting is Paris in the late 1890s, concluding c 1898 with the discovery of radium.

The plot is generally faithful to the sequence of events - but shouldn't be regarded as strictly biographical as the characters do not necessarily correspond precisely with real people.

 

There are 5 roles:

 

Marie (of course!) - a woman in her early 20s, both passionate and extremely committed to science.  Intially somewhat dowdy she becomes more vibrant by the close of act 1. Above all she is a romantic depiction of the female and feminist scientist.

 

Pierre - a man in his early 30s but prematurely aged with his beard.  As passionate and monk-like in his own way, similar to Marie but also with a romantic, clumsy and charming air.

 

Bemont  - early 30s - redhead - a standard character who plays off Pierre.  He  represnts the fall from pure science into patents and making money from science.

 

Georgette - a thickset waitress in her early 40s.  Although a minor role, she provides in the most part a foil to the others and introduces a different social class.

 

Chevrier - a somewhat corpulent bourgeois in his 50s who wishes to be a French academician looking for dead men's shoes.  Not a scientist of note, he is more of a manager, and highly ambitious.