This Year Le Bon Marché is celebrating its 170th anniversary and has imagined a unique event for the occasion : An immersive theater play.
A unique experience
A place of life and culture, the first Parisian department store will become, from September 1 to December 31, the scene of an unprecedented play. Once night has fallen and the store is plunged into darkness, 30 comedians will take the stage to play a specially revisited contemporary version of “Au bonheur des dames”, Emile Zola’s book inspired by Bon Marché, among the spectators. Of a historical genre, this immersive theater play is an opportunity to draw a parallel between the success story of the founders of Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche – Aristide and Marguerite Boucicaut – and the romantic story of Au Bonheur des Dames. It thus plunges the viewer into the world of department stores at the end of the 19th century through the revisited story of the protagonists of one of the greatest works of French literature.
A strange atmosphere
The play Au Bonheur des Dames is constructed by drawing inspiration from several forms of immersive theater that have already proven themselves in Anglo-Saxon countries, such as those of Sleep No More, Drowned Man or The Great Gatsby. In a historical genre, this immersive theater play revisits the romantic story of Au Bonheur des Dames and plunges the public into the world of department stores at the end of the 19th century. Like a waking dream, the spectator walks through the Bon Marché Rive Gauche at night in a strange atmosphere on the border between the real and the imaginary and goes to meet the protagonists of one of the greatest works of French literature adapted for the ‘occasion. This unprecedented experience revolutionizes the codes of traditional stage practice by placing the spectator at the heart of the story. Indeed, the stage is no longer limited to a stage on which the actors perform in front of a seated audience, it extends over one floor of the store, thus allowing the audience to wander freely in a life-size setting.
24 Rue de Sevres,
75007 Paris
Price: 75€ per person
From 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The entrance will be at 37 rue Velpeau 75007 Paris
