Invited by the Shakespeare Theatre Company to introduce their staged reading of Hugo’s Ruy Blas on December 9, 2007, Marva helped audience members understand why Hugo wrote this play, how theater made Hugo the leader of the French Romantic movement, and why Ruy Blas remains important. Here is a brief excerpt:
Beyond writing an engaging drama with a plot full of twists & turns and a compelling love story, Hugo with Ruy Blas cleverly—and safely—criticized the monarchy and aristocracy. By setting the play in late seventeenth-century Spain, Hugo evaded censorship, as he did not seem to be writing about his own time or his own country.
But Hugo imbued his young Ruy Blas with qualities that predict the future that Hugo envisioned for the French—and, ultimately, for everyone. Ruy Blas—a man of the people, a former student now reduced to earning his living as a lackey, the most menial of domestic servants—grows in stature after he finds himself unexpectedly disguised as a noble. His speech to Spain’s ministers in Act III foreshadows Hugo’s increasing belief that common people—people such as you and I—can and should govern ourselves. But can Ruy Blas keep hold of his own soul in this world of intrigue, greed, and vengeance?
With this play, Victor Hugo at age 36 held up a mirror to a monarchical system of government in decline. He articulated key themes—liberty, democracy, and conscience—that would resonate through his later literary works, such as Les Misérables, as well as through his legislative speeches, and the public letters he wrote during his nineteen-year exile as a critic of Napoleon III. Recognizing that artistic freedom promotes social freedom, Hugo fought for both—and he saw Shakespeare as a fellow playwright who claimed total artistic freedom.
The Shakespeare Company’s Rediscovery Series, led by Artistic Director Michael Kahn, investigates rarely produced classics, choosing some for new translation and mainstage productions.