About the play

Can you protect yourself from heartbreak without closing yourself off to love?

Published in 1834, On ne badine pas avec l’amour brings childhood companions Camille and Perdican together again. Their family hopes for a marriage. But Camille distrusts love, and Perdican’s pride cannot bear rejection. Between them stands Rosette, whose feelings become entangled in their increasingly dangerous game.

Musset moves between humour, tenderness and cruelty, exploring the distance between what we feel and what we dare to say. The title offers its own warning: love is not something to play with.

About Alfred de Musset

Alfred de Musset (1810–1857) was a French poet and playwright of the Romantic era, drawn to the contradictions of love: its promises, its disappointments, and our fear of being vulnerable.

After an early theatrical failure, he turned to writing plays intended to be read rather than staged, an approach known as Un spectacle dans un fauteuil: theatre experienced from an armchair.

A fitting connection for Out Loud, where voices and imagination bring the play to life.

Contact the host of Out Loud — On ne badine pas avec l'amour, Alfred de Musset