Theatre: ‘The Reason of the Maddest’

"The Reason of the Madman"
A comedy by Franck Mercadal.
Starring Grégori Baquet and Franck Mercadal.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau has just finished the book of his life: *The Confessions*.
The first autobiography ever written.
A work in which he settles scores with his friend of twenty years, Denis Diderot.

He has come to Paris to give public readings from it. The religious authorities are pleased, as he will once again prompt the king to imprison Diderot and ban his work: *L’Encyclopédie*.
A blasphemous book, in the eyes of the Church, since God is no longer placed at the centre of creation.

One evening, Diderot came to see Rousseau to ask him to stop his criticisms, but Rousseau refused, arguing that, in his view, sincerity was priceless. Diderot then proposed a chess challenge. The winner would decide the other’s fate.

A farcical and absurd game ensues, in which anything goes to unsettle the opponent.
The audience thus becomes complicit witnesses to this exchange, which is at once satirical and profound, classical and bonkers.
But beware: appearances can sometimes be very deceiving…