RUY BLAS de Victor Hugo

Students from theatre cycles and final-year S2TMD take over Bibliothèque Valeyre and Maison Victor Hugo for an encounter between theatre and music around Ruy Blas, one of Victor Hugo's great romantic dramas.

Created in 1838, Ruy Blas is part of the theatre renewal movement led by Victor Hugo. After the famous battle of Hernani, romantic theatre sought to break free from classical rules to blend registers, passions, and historical and political stakes.

The action takes place in late seventeenth-century Spain, at the court of Charles II. Hugo tells the meteoric rise of Ruy Blas, a common man in love with the queen, whose master pushes him to become the instrument of revenge. Behind the passionate plot, Hugo questions power relations and gives voice to a despised people, in a work that combines love, ambition, tragedy, and poetic breath.

For this show, the theatre students dialogue with traverso students from Johanne Favre-Engel's class. The sounds of this historical instrument punctuate the speech and create a dialogue between music and theatre.

Coordination: Elsa Saladin-Benattar